


Broken Wish

by Yemi Hikari (Yemi_Hikari)



Series: NaNoWriMo [10]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Reality, Bullying, F/M, Galaxy Garrison, Gen, Keith & Ryou (Voltron) are Cousins, Keith & Shiro (Voltron) are Biological Siblings, Keith & Shiro (Voltron) are Full Siblings, Mental Breakdown, Mental Health Issues, NaNoWriMo, NaNoWriMo 2016, Ryou & Shirou (Voltron) Are Cousins, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-01
Updated: 2017-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:47:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 35
Words: 49,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25177897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yemi_Hikari/pseuds/Yemi%20Hikari
Summary: Shiro's recapture leaves the team broken, and unsure about following the command of Keith despite the black paladin's wishes. Wishes, however, are something which constantly become broken, and the paladins find themselves transverse to an alternate Earth where the Kerberos mission never failed. (NaNoWriMo 2016)
Relationships: Allura/Keith (Voltron), Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith & Ryou (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron)
Series: NaNoWriMo [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1810801
Comments: 6
Kudos: 4
Collections: A Whisper to the  Dark Side, NaNoWriMo 2016, Platonic Relationships, Voltron: Shiro & Keith - Biological Brothers





	1. Conflation

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer - I don't own Voltron: Legendary Defender. This story is written for NaNoWriMo2016. The working theory for this story is that Shiro and Keith are biological brothers. Their mother is the blue paladin, who went into cryostasis on an Altean ship in hopes that it would find the blue lion after King Altor dies only to crash land on almost the other side of the world, where she meets their father. The fic will use some of the Shirogane family members I created for my story Aniki, but also ships Keith and Allura, with the ship playing a role in story. Other details will be revealed later, however, readers should be aware that part of the plot involves attempted suicide.

A blush temporarily spread across his cheeks, as his dark blue eyes looked at the other three paladins, his entire jaw tensing in frustration. Keith stood against the wall, leaning up against the structure for moral support, to hide exactly how he felt from the other three. His arms crossed his chest, his fingers digging in as feelings fought to swamp over him. A stale, blunt feeling of silence filled the room, only adding to the negative feelings hanging over his body. Nobody said what needed to be said, that Shiro managed to leave all of them in a lurch.

Keith's eyes finally looked down at the ground, unable to maintain his focus anymore, as his mind drifted. The sixteen-year-old paladin found his life filled with broken promises and broken wishes. The family of the red paladin was also broken, the final piece broken away with Shiro. He couldn't remember, honestly, how or why his parents died, but he did remember as a child how he felt when the adults in the Shirogane family decided to pull him away from his brother, shoving him into the uncaring branch family. He never felt accepted by anyone but Shiro, and now, Shiro was gone again.

"So…" Lance's voice broke the silence, bringing Keith's face up to look the Hispanic young man in the eye, the bright blue eyes of the other sixteen-year-old piercing deeply. "This is all your fault."

The young man looked down, his throat tightening as his fingers tightened. Keith felt the blush surge to his cheeks again, the feeling of shame attempting to overwhelm him, but also make him suddenly lash out by turning towards the wall and slamming his fist in. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the fact you were _with_ Shiro, yet you _couldn't_ bring him back! Now you want us to believe he wanted you to be a leader!" Lance's arms flew out in one of his over-exaggerated expressions.

Keith felt his eyebrows narrow, his dark blue eyes as well. "I never said I wanted to _be a_ leader! I'm as pissed off with Shiro about that as you are!"

The reactions were not what the red paladin expected. Pidge, who maintained a sour look upon hearing that Shiro was recaptured, let her eyes widen in shock. Allura somehow managed to maintain a smile this entire time, only showing absolute shock when Keith let her know Shiro was gone, but her eyebrows did shoot up as she continued to smile at him as if knowing something he didn't. Hunk continued to pout, while Coran's jaw dropped.

Lance, however, visibly tensed up, his arms dropping to his side, while his facial features twisted into anger, his cheeks flushing. The blue paladin also walked over, approaching Keith when everyone had kept their distance, and poked his finger painfully into Keith's chest. "How dare you! You, Keith, are the only one! You're the only one who's pissed off at Shiro." Lance's comment made the chest of the red paladin hurt, the feelings begin to well up even more. "We're pissed off at you! We're pissed off at you because you didn't bring back Shiro!"

Allura's smile twisted into a frown, before softly speaking up. "Lance…"

"No!" Lance threw his hands up in the air. "No way am I going to follow this loser! You seriously don't get it, Keith! Never have!"

The "new" leader of the paladins watched as the blue paladin turned, storming through the door nearby. Had Keith not been leaning against the wall, he imagined that Lance would have rudely bumped shoulders with him. The red paladin felt his eyes drift over to Pidge, whose honey-brown eyes narrowed. "No. Sorry. But I'm kind 'a pissed off with you right now as well."

Keith felt his emotional state sink even farther as she too left. Hunk shrugged his broad shoulders, lifting his hands up slightly. "So, I'm not per say mad at you, but I'm not exactly in my happy place right now, so I think I'll go find my happy place if that is okay with you."

This left the red paladin with Allura, who obviously seemed way to fine with the situation. Keith felt his eyes drift to the ground, feeling rather uncomfortable with the fact she kept trying to make eye contact with him. Coran glanced over at the princess, before glancing at Keith. The advisor pulled at his red mustache, before looking back at the princess one more time. The man then proceeded to slip out of the room, leaving Keith in the room with Allura, by himself.

Keith's dark blue eyes widened, his jaw dropping. He felt his throat tighten, the realization that he was in the room with her alone sinking in deep. His eyes closed and opened once, as he tried to regain his composure, but figure out exactly what he was thinking. "Umm…"

"So…" Allura got the rather sing-song tone in her voice, meaning she was going to try and patronize someone to get something.

The red paladin's eyes narrowed, his mouth twisting into a frown. "Um, no."

"You haven't even heard…"

"If you're trying to pep talk me so I can go off and, I don't know, do some kind of leadership thingy to pull the four of us back together. Don't. I'm not leadership material, but there's also the fact without five paladins, we can't form Voltron even if I did have those kinds of skills."

Allura's eyes widened, blinking a couple of times. "I think you're being too hard on yourself."

"I think you're being too optimistic, and I don't need that." The dark-skinned female frowned, before stepping over to Keith. Nobody other than Shiro ever got into his personal space like that, making the red paladin cringe at the unexpected advancement, but also how Allura leaned in, still smiling in that horribly optimistic manner of hers. "No, don't." For some reason she thought reaching out both hands to gently touch his face was okay, but instead, his dark eyes shut tightly against the onslaught. "Stop."

"Keith." The princess spoke in a soft manner, making a shudder run down his spine. His eyes refused to open, and the fact she entered his personal space set him off. Allura leaned in close, much, in the same manner, Lance did when they argued about staying or fighting. This was different, as that time Keith was just as guilty of getting into the blue paladin's personal space. Her voice, however, was soft. "Can you look me in the eye?"

Keith's dark blue eyes snapped open, and he found himself sinking into her bright, crystal blue ones. The overall feeling which rushed over him gravitated him towards a place he didn't want to go, where feelings ever so foreign lurked, and he had enough feelings already to deal with. How long he remained like that, he did no, but Keith did know he pulled away awkwardly, and he visibly saw displeasure on Allura's face. "Please don't."

"Akira."

"What?" Shock flooded through Keith's entire body, as Allura managed to add one more thing to everything he now found himself worrying about. He pulled away.

Her eyes blinked a couple of times, almost as if the Altean princess felt some kind of shock. "That, that is your _real_ name?"

Keith felt his chest tighten, his eyes darting away, as making eye contact at this point in time would only make him feel even more uncomfortable. He could hear his voice strain, the feeling of betrayal rushing over. " _Shiro_ told you?"

Allura's eyes blinked a few times. "No. Why would he know your real name?"

"Wouldn't you know that answer! I mean…" The red paladin almost looked her in the eye, but flinched. "How else could you have known?"

"Keith…"

"I'm going for a walk."

"Oh. About the local alien species…"

"Don't care." Keith turned, his entire body tensing up. What happened to him between then, and when he got out of the castle was a blur. He stopped short, watching a white creature float in front of him, his mouth dropping. His fingers reached out to touch the creature, a calm washing over his entire body as memories of his childhood on a rainy day when Shiro showed him how to make a small rain talisman to make the rain go away, a small, cute ghost like creature much like this one. He watched the creature turn then, the feeling of nostalgia washing over him, before a flash of white occurred.


	2. Dysphoria

Complete and utter dysphoria washed over the sixteen-year-old, his dark blue eyes glued on the doorknob with his hands hovering a few inches away with the keys to unlock the place. Keith felt a shudder run down his spine, noticing the orange sleeve of the Garrison uniform, but also the light rain falling outside. His hand began to shake, making the other hand reach up to stop the trembling, yet the dysphoria wouldn't go away.

Instinctively the red paladin unlocked the door, knowing he needed to get out of the rain. He stepped into the place, dripping on the floor. His throat tightened, seeing the hallway adorned with pictures of him and Shiro, despite the fact Keith knew full well that he removed these pictures and set them on the floor facing the wall. He felt the keys drop to the ground, the numb feeling setting in despite the fact his entire body felt cold to the touch. One hand absentmindedly reached up to tug at his sleeve. Without realizing it, much in the same way he didn't realize leaving the castle, he found himself in the living room area.

With an exasperated sound, the red paladin pulled the uniform shirt over his head, tossing it against the couch, before collapsing to a sitting position on the ground, staring at the offending item. Keith felt the inside of his nose sting, as he attempted to fight back the negative feelings rushing through his head, one dark-blue eye twitching, his hand's reaching up to clutch the soaking wet, black locks of hair. "This can't be happening. This can't be real."

A shiver ran down Keith's spine, wondering why he ended up in his worst nightmare, his knees pulling up to his chest as the panic increased. Logic dictated, if this place was real, then he imagined up Voltron as an attempt to escape, and that meant, as the news reports said, that Shiro died on the Kerberos mission, and everyone blamed the talented young pilot for what happened. What little friendship he felt with Lance was a fraud, and yet he felt that way when the blue paladin painfully poked him in the chest. Everything continued to shatter, and Keith found himself at the same point he was before, not wanting anything to do with the Garrison.

Keith's eyes opened, looking at the orange uniform laying haphazardly across the couch, his breath rather deep. "I'm still at the Garrison, so maybe that hasn't happened." The sixteen-year-old, maybe fifteen-year-old stood up, staggering over to the calendar on the refrigerator. A shudder ran down Keith's spine, taking in the date, which was way past the time his disciplinary issue got him kicked out. A shudder ran down his spine. "He's dead. He's really dead."

The young paladin leaned up against the kitchen sink, letting everything sink in. The biggest realization was how alone he felt, his arms hanging at his side as water continued to drip off his body onto the kitchen floor. Shock settled in, pulling him deeper into the dark void. One hand reached up to clutch at his chest, his eyes widening. Something white outside of the window flashed by and Keith looked up, wondering what drew his eye.

Instead of hearing a roll of thunder, the whiteness floated by again, that strange creature which had floated up to him, from childhood memories. Keith felt the corner of his mouth twitch, wondering why the creature was there, floating now and staring at him if this weren't reality. Keith's mind drew a blank, as the cogs in his head attempted to move so that the red paladin could put the puzzle pieces together.

"Wh…" Keith's dark eyes blinked a couple of times, the realization that this wasn't real hitting him. He felt a sudden surging of emotion, the feeling of gratitude, only for this feeling to bite back upon remembering Lance's reaction to finding out Shiro picked the red paladin and not the blue to replace him as a leader. His eyes closed shut, the feeling of loneliness washing over him. His hand went to the drawer, sliding it open to look at the knives, remembering that one way to wake up from a dream was to cause pain. "Here goes nothing."

He picked up the blade, letting it slice through one wrist, flipping it over to the other without thinking to do the same. His dark blue eyes blinked a couple of times, looking down at the half-finished job. "Owe. That hurts." Keith felt the color drain from his face, looking at the blade in his hand, his entire body beginning to tremble. The knife dropped to the floor, and he soon followed, collapsing to his knees. "How could I be so stupid."

The red paladin simply stayed there, not at all sure what to do, his eyes staring at the mess gathering around him, a shudder running down his spine again. His throat tightened, one hand reaching up to grab the countertop, knowing full well he needed to do something to stop the blood flow, only to slip slightly in his own blood. His mouth opened to call for help, only to realize no-one was around to come. A laugh escaped his lips. "So, this is what I get for never depending on people? I don't have help when I really need it, but this nasty feeling knowing that nobody would even care to come and help me?"

Keith let his eyes closed, attempting to lift himself up one more time, only to slide back to the ground, the pain in his wrists rather great. A soft sound, which sounded like a mix between a purr and a bird sound drew him away. Opening his eyes, he saw the white thing floating there, staring at him. "Oh…" The red paladin's eyes opened and closed. "It's you. What do you want?"

The red paladin lifted his arm up weakly, finding his finger dangling just short of touching the alien creature before collapsing to the ground. He closed his eyes, only to think he heard Allura in the back of his head. " _Keith?_ "

" _Don't. You're just a figment of my imagination, created because of wishful thinking on my part._ "

" _What are you… what have you done to yourself? Why do I sense that you're in pain? Actually, why can I communicate with you this way?_ "

" _Because you're a figment of my imagination, something I created to escape the reality of Shiro dying._ "

" _What are you talking about? Shiro isn't dead, just captured by the Galra._ "

" _That's a lie. Shiro died on the Kerberos mission. I'm tired of lying to myself. This is so stupid._ "

" _Stop thinking like that!_ "

" _You're not real. The fact Shiro's dead, that's quite real. The fact I'm alone like I always was, that's real as well._ "

" _Keith, what is your connection to Shiro?_ "

" _What?"_ The red paladin felt something soft against his lap, but he paid no mind to it. " _You should know that, as you're a figment of my imagination._ "

" _Still, tell me._ "

" _He's my older brother, the closest thing I've 'ever' had to a parent. He's everything to me Allura._ "

" _Alright. How can I convince you that I'm real? That Shiro is still alive?_ "

Keith felt something soft brush against his hand.

" _That. What is that thing you're feeling? Open your eyes!_ "

Keith's dark blue eyes opened up, and he noticed the strange alien creature resting on his hand. " _I don't know what that is._ "

" _I do. I tried warning you about the alien species of this world._ _They create alternate worlds and that thing…_ "

" _Shouldn't I be able to get out by doing what I did?"_ The red paladin's eyes snapped shut.

" _What did you do?_ " Allura let out a frustrated sigh. " _Keith. Open your eyes so I can see what you did?_ " The sixteen-year-old let his eyes blink open, before looking down at his injuries. For some reason, he felt the alien princess' panic wash over her. " _Why? Why did you do something like that?_ "

" _If you feel pain, you wake up._ "

" _Keith! This isn't something you can escape from by harming yourself!_ "

" _So, I'm going to die in this world and that one?_ "

" _No. It's…_ "

Keith, however, could no longer hear her voice, as his mental state finally blanked out.


	3. Headache

Rain poured down, hitting the windshield and roof of the jeep as Iverson made a weekly check-in on a particular cadet. The smell of Chinese food wafted up into the man's nostrils, while his mouth twisted into a grimace, not liking the fact one of his required duties at the Garrison involved checking up on the wellbeing of one of the cadets. The man's mind couldn't help but compare his current charge to the Garrisons pride and joy.

Hands down Takashi Shirogane was a child genius at piloting, but he was also good at athletics and academics. Despite the cultural shock when the teen first came over from Japan, Shiro as he liked to be called still managed to make friends, and inspired those around him with ease. The younger brother, Keith Kogane as he liked to be called, was another story. While he was a genius at piloting and quite athletic, academically there were certain concepts which went over his head. The teen also struggled with social situations, and was in fact, prior to entering the academy, something the Japanese called a hikikomori.

Shiro could take care of himself, but Keith's idea of a square meal involved instant ramen, eating cereal straight from the box, other kinds of packaged foods, and bottled drinks. There was also some worries about the teen's mental stability, but the teen was stubborn and had a temper which Iverson did not enjoy dealing with, but thankfully the older brother would return to Earth soon, ending his babysitting job, at least for the time being. Keith made his normal appreciation of the Shirogane family dampen immensely.

The man pulled to a stop outside of the gate, and stepped out into the pouring rain, grabbing the bag of Chinese food from the passenger seat. The weather soaked him to the bone, and yet the weather meant checking up on an unsupervised minor was even more important. The lightning flashed, and Iverson brought out the keycard which allowed him entrance to the front gate. The booming sound rang in his ears as he pushed the gate open, wondering what kind of tantrum he would need to deal with today, wishing it was instead the Garrison psychiatrists day to check up on the boy.

His one good eye narrowed, seeing the open door, his mouth moving to let out a sigh of frustration. In Iverson's mind, nobody would be fool enough to break into one of the Shirogane households, which meant Keith left the door open. Water puddled around the entrance, meaning Iverson would need to clean up. He closed the door behind him, heading into the kitchen, noting Keith's uniform jacket tossed onto the couch haphazardly, meaning the teen was still home. Rain poured down on the living room window, a foretelling of the sight Iverson would soon see.

The man turned, stopping short at the sight of the hunched over the figure on the floor. The lack of light prevented Iverson from seeing what was going on, and yet he knew Keith was leaning up against the counter and remaining perfectly still. The man set the food on the counter, before flipping the switch. The lights flickered on, and the commanding officer grimaced at the sight. "Shit." Iverson knelt down next to Keith, feeling for a pulse, and thankfully felt a faint heartbeat. The man then proceeded to grab a towel from the stove, wrapping it around the teen's wrists tightly. "Why the hell did you have to do this on my watch?"

With his free hand, Iverson reached for his phone, calling up the emergency team at the garrison, as calling 911 would only bring unwanted attention that the Shirogane wouldn't want from their black sheep family member, but the Garrison could handle the situation better. The person on the other line spoke up quickly. "Commander Iverson?"

"I've got a medical situation over at Takashi Shirogane's place."

"What did that Kogane kid do this time?"

"Do you really want to know? Just sent the med-evac, warning them that it will be slippery by the front door." The man hung up the phone, realization hitting him a bit late that the military medical team would draw even more attention. One hand reached up to feel again for a pulse, the man's dark countenance twisting in frustration. Within a few minutes, the team was there, where it would have taken a normal ambulance longer.

One of the officers leaned down, feeling for a pulse for the third time. "It looks like quite a bit of blood loss commander. We'll want to start an IV drip as soon as possible. Are you going to ride with us."

"Yes. I'll have someone come and pick up my vehicle. Make sure the media can't get into the area."

"Already done sir."

The man stepped back, watching as the medics proceeded to bandage the injuries before lifting the young cadet up onto the gurney. Iverson noticed how Keith's usually pale complexion had turned a stark white and bags had already formed under his eyes, before following them out to the awaiting ambulance. The rain continued to pour down, adding to the problems. The IV went in quickly as did the oxygen mask. Questions he wanted to ask the young cadet fluttered through his mind, and yet they would need to wait, particularly since the garrison psychiatrist would need to be pulled in.

The van arrived, and they lifted the gurney off, taking the young cadet into surgery. Iverson glanced around, making note that none of the students were up, and able to gossip about what they saw, before giving the order for his jeep to be retrieved. Iverson headed to his office and opened up the phone line. A rather muffled, or confused hello came in on the other line. "Apologies Aleesha, but I need you to come in. It's an emergency."

"Is there anything you can tell me over the phone?"

"It's Kagone."

A silence fell over the other side before the woman finally spoke up. "Yes. I'll be in as soon as I can." Iverson proceeded to the waiting area just outside of surgery, his fingers drumming the bench in irritation. The young female psychiatrist walked up to him, a frown on her face. "What happened?"

Iverson looked up at her. "Was there any indicator from your weekly sessions with him that he would slit his wrists?"

"Of all the… you know I can't break patient confidentiality. How long has he been in surgery?"

"Since a few minutes before I called you."

A silence fell over the hallway, but then Aleesha spoke up. "You do realize that I can't let you talk to him until I do?"

Iverson didn't respond in words, and simply stood up. He looked down at her, frowning as he did. "I need to go to my office. I've got paperwork to fill out."

"This late at night?"

"Kagone and your younger brother always seem to find some way to make more paperwork for everyone."


	4. Watched

Darkness washed over the young paladin until a bright light started to filter through his eyelids. Keith felt a stiffness through is entire body as his breath drew in tightly, and his wrists hurt quite a bit. He could feel his fingers move slightly, and yet something was preventing his wrists from moving correctly. His eyes felt heavy, and his throat very dry. Somehow, he managed to open his eyes, only to see the bright lights of one of the garrison hospital rooms, and he also wore a hospital gown. "Quiznack."

"It's good to see that you're awake."

Keith let his head turn towards the voice, his eyes half lidded as he looked at the woman in the rather neat dress uniform. His confuddled mind attempted to make sense of who he was looking at and then realized the garrison psychiatrist was in the room. His dark blue eyes opened and closed once. "Oh. Psychiatrist nee-chan. What are you doing here?"

"You don't remember?" Aleesha's eyebrows shot up.

The red paladin let his eyes drift to his wrists, noticing the bandages quickly. His head tilted up, a small inkling coming back to him. "Oh, Quiznack." His eyes opened. "My head feels weird."

"That would be the loss of blood. You lost quite a bit before Commander Iverson found you. They also have you on a mild painkiller and sedative."

Keith let his head tilt back to look at her. His mouth pushed together, not at all sure what to say. He could feel the panic welling in his chest knowing it wasn't one of the other paladin's who came to his rescue. His eyes closed, his hands clenching at the sheets as his jaw clenched shut. He knew deep down that he didn't want to be alone again, and yet there was also the feeling that he couldn't trust anyone. Thus, the room filled with silence, the fear of the questions the adults would ask pounding at the back of his head.

After a few minutes, Keith realized Aleesha was still in the room, and he turned his head to look at the woman. "You're still here?"

"You're currently in the garrison psychiatric ward, as small as it is, under suicide watch. You did, after all, try to kill yourself."

"No." The teen closed his eyes, realizing one of his worst nightmares was coming true, his fingers twisting into the blanket. It was always something that ate away at the back of his head, how he knew he didn't think like other people, but was also likely the only cadet who had twice weekly appointments with the counselor, something everything thought was just for anger management. He'd waited for quite some time for the psychiatrist to diagnose him and stick him into a psych ward, but now he'd given her everything she needed. "I didn't try to kill myself."

The woman took a deep breath. "What?"

"If I wanted to kill myself, I would have committed _seppuku_." Keith let the air come out of his nose, his ears catching the sound of exasperation from her. "I'll admit I did something _really_ stupid this time."

"Stupid? What were you thinking?" The woman let out a deep breath. The teen's mouth snapped shut, not wanting to mention the real reason he'd harmed himself. "You didn't think that by harming yourself, it might relieve the stress you're under?" Keith felt a shudder run down his spine. "You aren't being bullied like you were back at your old middle school?"

The red paladin's eyes blinked a couple of times, his throat tightening. "What?"

"I know I've asked you this before at your scheduled meetings with me, and your answer has been now, but I do need to ask, particularly since your brother said he suspected someone before he left. I thought it strange until now that he didn't tell me who he suspected, though."

Keith's eyes blinked a couple of times, his hands opening, and closing, wondering where Shiro might have gotten such an idea. His eyes snapped open, remembering how he'd come home upset because he felt Lance was picking on him. "Oh."

He noticed Aleesha's eyebrows shoot up. "Who is it?"

"Uh." The red paladin's eyes blinked a couple of times, remembering how Shiro's response towards Lance after he got kicked out of the garrison differed, but then remembered how Shiro carefully watched how his younger brother and the boy acted, thus possibly concluding what Keith finally found himself coming to, that Lance was just being Lance, even though it did honestly feel at times like bullying. "I plead the fifth."

"Excuse me."

"I believe the phrase is I'm not going to say any more until my lawyer is present."

The garrison psychiatrist let out a coughing sound. "I'm honestly not sure what to say to that. Your behavior though is honestly worrisome. It's bad enough someone has to tell your older brother you…"

"Wait. Shiro's alive." The world's twisted on Keith's tongue despite the fact he'd planned on remaining silent. His mouth clamped shut, his eyes glaring at the woman.

"Did someone tell you that your brother is dead?" Aleesha's eyes widened. "I mean, that might explain why you reacted the way you did, but…" A sigh escaped her lips as she leaned back slightly. "I see I'm not going to get more information from you." Her blue eyes narrowed, her lips pushing together. "Also, you're still on twenty-four-hour suicide watch despite the fact you said you weren't trying to kill yourself."

Some of the tension Keith felt melted away. "You mean I'm not going to be alone?"

"Someone will be with you every minute." Aleesha's eyebrow's shot up. "I find it a bit odd that you're not upset by that. You're rather private, and aren't fond of strangers."

The red paladin's mouth pushed together, his frustration returning. "You mean that a _stranger_ will be in the room with me? You're not the one who's staying?"

The woman took a deep breath. "Twenty-four-hour suicide watch means that you're under constant observation. Not one person can watch you constantly. However, I'll try to be in here as much as possible. In the meantime, you rest."

"The light is going to stay on, though." Keith felt his fingers twist around the bedding, his mind unsure of how to proceed, let alone what to say to prevent himself getting a permeant stay. For some reason, he didn't want the light off, particularly since his mind was still contemplating the fact Shiro was actually alive.

"It _has_ to stay on."

"That's okay. I want it on." Keith lifted his hands up to cover his eyes. His mouth opened, the words coming out of his mouth without realizing he was speaking out loud, the dysphoria continuing to overwhelm him. "It feels safe."


	5. Unfathomable

"Lance…" Hunk's voice quavered in a low whisper. "Why are we back at the garrison?"

"I don't know. Hold on. I say Vol, you say…" Lance held up his fingers, pointing them at his friend while attempting to wink.

"Not funny Lance. Where's our lions? I want to see Yellow." The yellow paladin's mouth twisted into a frown.

"I was just double checking it was you. Was it like, some kind of dream we had together, because Keith would never, ever be chummy with us. I mean, I tried being friends with him, and he'd always give me this weird look." The blue paladin watched Hunk stare at him, his eyes indicating he was a little weirded out by his friend's reaction. "Um, kind of like what you're doing right now. Where's Pidge? Wonder if that little weirdo's really a girl."

"I don't know."

"You don't know where she, he, is, or you don't know what gender Pidge is?"

"I don't know where she is. And it's not some weird dream."

"Yeah, but…" Lance raised his hand up into the air as a one of the other cadets passed by. "Have any of you guys seen Pidge Gunderson?"

"Who?" The other cadet stared at him, before shaking their head as if this were normal for Lance.

"They don't know who Pidge is?" Lance muttered, poking at his food. "Seriously. What's going on."

"Maybe we can find out by listening in on some of their conversations?" Hunk lifted a finger to his lips. Lance nodded his head as the two lifted up their treys, only for the yellow paladin to quickly shove the rest of his food, and his best friend's into his mouth, before sneaking over to one of the pillars in the garrison cafeteria. A few of the other cadets stared, and a few of the girls giggled. The two stayed right behind the table they knew did the most gossiping, listening carefully.

"So, do you he'll take me on a date when he gets back in a week or so? How long is it"

"No fair! Plus, isn't Takashi Shirogane, like, so much older than us?"

"He just graduated last year, so…"

"Wait!" Lance darted around the column. "You're telling me that the Kerberos mission gets back soon."

"Lance…" Hunk peeked around the column at the girls, who gave the two male teens.

"I thought you would know that, what with you being the biggest fanboy of his." The girl wrinkled up her nose."

The blue paladin attempted to strike a pose. "Of course I am. I am after all…"

The young man fell over onto the ground, making the girls snicker at him, before getting up to dump their food into the trashcans. "Losers."

"Ouch." Lance rubbed the back of his head. "Next thing you know, they're going to say Keith's still a pilot here at the garrison."

One of the guys let out a rather callous laugh. "Really? I know that you aren't fond of Kagone, nobody really is, but he's still the top pilot here at the garrison for our year, if not the entire garrison."

"Seriously. You guys are losers."

Hunk's mouth twisted in a pout as he pulled his best friend up. "Come on. Let's get back to our dorm room."

The blue paladin's mouth twisted up as he followed along behind Hunk, letting his mood boil. They arrived at their room, and Lance plopped down, letting out a rather loud yell into his pillow, before turning to glare at the ceiling, throwing his limbs to the side. "It's so not fair!"

"Come on Lance. Keith's our friend."

"Friend?" The blue paladin sat up. "You mean the friend whose not here at the garrison with us, because he gets special treatment and gets to live off base? You mean the friend who got picked to be leader by Shiro despite he fact he's such a jerk? I mean, he left Shiro _behind_. Then he goes and gets pissed off at Shiro instead of being upset that he's gone! And he's still a pilot, and I'm stuck at cargo pilot! It Is so isn't fair!"

"I think you're being to hard on him. He did after all say that he agreed with you that Shiro shouldn't have chosen him, but to be honest, I…"

"I'm going to bed."

"Shouldn't we be thinking how to get back to Voltron, but also find the others."

"We'll talk to that loser mullet head tomorrow."

"Yeah, that really doesn't sound like a plan."

"Do you have any better ideas?" Lance let out a sigh. "I mean, what were we doing?"

"I took you out with me to gather supplies, so that you could cool your head." Hunk sighed. Then we kind of shorted out, and we were getting to eat an awesome dinner. An Earth dinner I might add. I missed Earth food."

"I want to hear my family. I'm sure Keith and Pidge want to see their families as well. We've got plenty of time to get back to our world. I mean, outside of the fact stupid mullet head Keith is a fighter pilot, and I'm stuck at cargo pilot."

"Maybe we're stuck here, because we need to make friends with Keith?"

"Let me think about that for a bit." Lance paused for only a few seconds before rolling his eyes. "Nope! I'm still mad at him. For a _lot_ of things."

"Alright. I'm going to check my planner for any homework due tomorrow. I'll turn off the light when I'm done."

Lance rolled over onto his side, his mouth twisting into a frown. He took a deep breath, wondering what to think about the situation. The blue paladin couldn't make head or tails of what Keith was thinking when the other teen came back with Shiro, and it bothered him that the red paladin remained emotionless, as if unfazed. Keith then said something about being mad at Shiro, and the blue paladin lost it, leading to Hunk taking him out to gather supplies. He'd ranted a bit then, only for something weird to happen. He wasn't sure if he wanted to see Keith tomorrow either, as the anger at the red paladin had yet to abait. Eventually the light turned off, and he dozed off until Hunk woke him up for their morning class.

Lance took his time, missing breakfast, and coming into class a few minutes late, his eyes drifting over to the spot where Keith normally sat staring out the window at nothing, however, found the red paladin to be missing. He sat down, not pleased with the fact he couldn't speak to Hunk. His fingers tapped, not remembering a single time when Keith was absent, let alone late. He felt nausea built up when one of the other students mentioned something to one of their friends, and caught the look Hunk gave him.

"Rumor has it Kagone's not in school because something bad happened to him."


	6. Open Door Policy

Somehow, he managed to drift off until one of the nurses brought in something for him to eat, and Aleesha nudged him away. Keith started, still quite unsure of what would happen to him. Something told him that getting kicked out of the garrison was a definite option, as he'd gone and proven himself mentally unstable. Looking down at the tray of food made him feel nauseated, as the green gelatin wiggled slightly, reminding him of food goo with the pieces of toast already buttered for him, and a thing of oatmeal.

His spoon poked the gelatin a few times, before sticking it into the oatmeal grimacing. Aleesha looked up from her own food, her mouth pressing into a frown. "I forgot to let them know about your food issues. I can…"

"It can't be worse than food goo." Keith plugged his nose with one hand, before bringing the oatmeal to his mouth, forcing himself to swallow down the food.

"What…" The look on the garrison's psychiatrist seemed strange to him.

The red paladin felt his spoon drop to the tray, as his hands clapped over his mouth, his wrists rather sore. His mind still spun, and his eyes began to water as his issue with food textures surged forth. He didn't notice Aleesha stand up, his hands reaching out to try the green gelatin, only for the reaction to be worse this time around.

"Stop." The young woman placed her hand on his shoulder gently, which would have normally made him balk, while he continued to gag on the food. "You don't need to force yourself, Keith. You don't need to prove yourself to anyone."

The red paladin felt a rush of emotions to his face, remembering how he did indeed need to prove himself to Lance, but the other two as well. His entire body shook, and what little he ate suddenly came up. Keith hunched over, frustrated at everything going on with his body at that point in time. A knock came at the doorway, and one of the residents called out to the garrison psychiatrist. Looking up, the teen watched as she walked over to look at the chart someone had before she looked up at the medical person. "Ketamine?"

The person nodded his head, and she came back. Keith's mouth twisted into a deep frown as she pulled the tray of food away, before putting the edge of the clipboard, looking at him carefully. "What's Ketamine?"

A sigh escaped Aleesha's mouth, as she carefully folded her arms across her chest. "Keith, I need you to tell me what you remember from last night, alright?"

"No." Keith's eyes drifted to his hand, remembering how out of place he felt the night before. "I need to go to the restroom."

The woman let out a sigh, before turning her head towards the young man waiting for her. "Could you go with him. It's not exactly appropriate for me to go in there with him, and he's still under suicide watch."

The red paladin swallowed, his entire body tensing up as he stared at the guy, before looking down. He heard the male medical staff members speak up for. "Did they check for, well, you know what?"

"No, they didn't."

"You know. I am here. I can hear you guys talking about me." Keith pushed his lips together. " _I also want my lion, and Shiro, and the Castle of Lions, and maybe Allura. And Lance. I want to be friends with him and Hunk, but that's not going to happen._ "

Keith swung his legs over the edge, finding his entire body rather shaky. The medical staff member showed him where the restroom was located. He caught a glimpse of the ghost-like creature floating around as if nobody noticed it. The red paladin focused on getting into the restroom, only to realize suddenly that the small ghost wasn't the only one following him. He let out a hiss of frustration at the medical staff. "What are you doing?"

"Sorry, but you're on suicide watch. That means you're _not_ allowed to go to the bathroom on your own."

The red paladin felt his mouth twitch, a dozen thoughts rolling through his head, including the fact he hadn't actually _tried_ to kill himself, that none of this was his bloody fault, and that life just really sucked, not to mention the fact any ability he had to use the restroom went away as soon as he realized he was being watched. Keith leaned up against the bathroom wall, and slid down to the ground, burying his head in his knees, while his arms hung at his side.

"Hey, aren't you going to be using the restroom?"

"I can't."

"Why? Because a guy is watching? Do you need me to go get the doctor because she'll…"

"That's even worse." Keith tucked his arms around his knees, just as he felt the strange ghost creature land on his head.

" _Keith?_ "

" _Allura?_ " A shudder ran down Keith's spine.

" _Are you doing okay._ "

" _No. Can you or the other paladins get me out of here? This place really stinks._ "

" _About that…_ "

" _Please. I'll be good._ "

" _This isn't about you being good. I can't get into this world you and the paladins are stuck in. To do so is complicated._ "

" _Then contact them already!_ "

" _The problem with that is, you're the only one I'm able to communicate with like this._ "

" _Oh. Great. Now I'm in the psych ward with a voice in my head. No way they're gonna let me out now._ "

"Hey, kid. Hurry up and use the restroom already."

" _Yeah right. You're not only able to hear my thoughts, but see what I do, right?_ "

" _Yeah, so?"_

Keith looked up, letting his mouth twist into a grin as his mouth twitched. "I am so not going to go to the bathroom right now."

"Are you an idiot? You can't keep it in twenty-four hours!"

"I sure can try."

"Really? Do you really want the medical staff to give you an enema." The man folded his arms across his chest as the red paladin felt the color drain from his face upon hearing that particular word. "Believe me when I say, we do _not_ want to do that, _nor_ do you _want_ to know what it is."

"Actually…" Keith felt the very distinct heat of embarrassment spread across his cheeks at _another_ involuntary reaction. "I actually know what that is. You also probably don't want to know what just happened, but the thing is, I _really_ hate enema. Like, _really_ bad."

The man's eyes widened. "Crap."


	7. Skyped

After that, his mind felt numb, attempting to block out the embarrassing situation he found himself in. The red paladin liked being in control of things, only ever releasing control to his older brother, as he trusted the black paladin far more than anyone else in his life. However, in this particular situation, he found the situation completely out of his control, including the ghost coming and going as it pleased.

In the ward, there was no privacy, and people could touch him, and if he attempting to pull away, the medical team simply sedated him, much like they did after the episode in the bathroom. They also came in to change the bandages around his wrists, which started to feel restrictive, and the medical gown felt too revealing. The only consolation was the fact Aleesha stayed with him so that at least one non-stranger wasn't in the room.

The food was also disgusting, even though Aleesha tried telling the staff about Keith's texture issues. He also knew the adults around him avoided telling him certain things, hiding things from him as if he were a small child and none of the adults who came to relieve Aleesha for a short period of time let anything slip. He found himself letting out a sigh of relief when she finally said, "Alight. The twenty-four hours is over."

"This means I can go home, right?" Keith's eyebrows shot up, his chest tightening with hope, not wanting a repeat of the earlier episode, as the fear of Lance finding out and mocking him ate away at the back of his head.

"No. You're still under suicide watch." Aleesha stood up. "However, you're not under constant supervision anymore, just someone checking in on you every so often."

The red paladin swallowed, the thought of being left alone bothering him. "I see."

"I'll be back in a bit to check in on you."

Keith took a deep breath, realizing that he would indeed be alone again, his fingers tightening around the bed sheets, his eyes taking in the bandages on his wrists. The reality was still a mess in his head, as one thing told him Shiro was dead, another that he wasn't, and yet another that he should be at the Castle of Lions. He stared off at the wall, the feeling not going away.

Aleesha came back with a laptop, it sitting open in her arms. "I brought you something as a reward for making it through those twenty-four hours, particularly since I know that was hard on you. You can't though have a cord, so your use will be limited."

The red paladin let out a sigh, wondering how he could enjoy the use of a computer when the battery would die out after a few hours. Aleesha stepped over, setting the computer gently onto his lap, and his dark eyes widened at seeing what was on the computer screen. "Shiro?"

"Hey, kiddo." Shiro smiled at him from the other side of the screen, dressed in his uniform, and yet that smile felt like another fake one to try and tide him over.

"Aniki?" Keith felt his voice strain, and pain in his nose as his chest tighten. "How?"

This world was honestly confusing, and yet Shiro continued to smile at him. "So, I guess I'll start with how. We're actually at the colony facilities on Mars. We were only supposed to stay for a day, but it's been pushed back a few days. That means we can spend some time talking. That's kind of nice since it's been awhile."

The fifteen-year-old swallowed, and felt a hot tear in his eye and felt it trickle down. Keith raised up his hand to wipe away the wetness. "Um. This postponement. It isn't because of me is it?"

Shiro's eyes blinked a couple of times, watching as a few more tears came down. "What. No."

The red paladin sighed, recognizing the tone of voice as the one his brother used when he tried lying to him. "You're lying Shiro."

"It's for me, okay?" The eighteen-year-old let out a sigh, leaning back in the chair he sat in. "I mean, I've really missed seeing you, my kid brother, but now… I am honestly a little worried. I mean, how could I not be."

"Um…" Keith swallowed, looking down so he could hopefully avoid eye contact. "I'm sorry? I mean, for making you worried."

"I know you are."

A silence fell between the two, an idea suddenly sparked. He was confused slightly, as the word tumbled out of his mouth, just as the ghost creature came fluttering between him and Shiro, and yet his older brother didn't notice, only to disappear from the room again. "Voltron?"

"What?" Shiro's dark eyes blinked a couple of times.

"You know, Voltron?"

"Is that…" The older teen lets out a sigh. "A cartoon or something that you're into?"

Keith felt his cheeks heat up, feeling alone despite the fact the one thing that had always made him feel like he was never alone was right there in front of him, taking t him through the computer. "Nothing. It's nothing."

He heard Shiro take a breath, and looked up in time for his brother to start asking questions. "I've got to ask. Is someone, anyone…"

"I plead the fifth." The red paladin's eyes widened, his mind drifting off to _what_ Shiro might do when his mood became dark.

"Keith." His older brother's mouth twisted up into a smile, attempting to not laugh at him.

"I'll say nothing without a lawyer."

"Yeah, that's not how it works." The amusement on Shiro's face was evident to the red paladin. "I heard you've been driving the medical staff crazy."

"Don't you dare! I don't like that, that…"

"I know exactly how you feel about an enema, not that I can't blame you."

"Could we change the subject. This time it was the worst ever."

Keith watched his brother reach up to rub the back of his head, his eyes still twinkling with mirth. "Change it to what?"

The red paladin's mind twisted around, before suddenly realizing there was something he wanted answers on. He felt his shoulders tense up and avoided eye contact again. "What are you and everyone else keeping from me?"

Shiro's facial features twisted up. "What? What do you mean keeping from you?"

"What's Ketamine?" Keith watched the color drain from his brother's face.

"Keith…"

"Don't Keith me. What…"

"Could we possibly talk about this when I get back, and you and I face to face? I'd feel a lot more comfortable having this conversation with you in the privacy of our home, not to mention I think you would be more comfortable. It's not that I'm trying to hide it from you. I mean…" Shiro took a deep breath. "Actually, I was kind of hoping you'd not figured it out, and now you're pissed off at me, aren't you?"

"Why would I be…" Keith took a deep breath. "Yes. How come I get mad at you like this, but I don't hate you, but me being mad doesn't go away. It stays there."

Shiro took a deep breath and this time he avoided eye contact. "Great. Another conversation I was hoping would come along later, or never with you."

"I'm not a little kid Shiro!"

The nineteen-year-old smiled. "No, but you are still my kid brother. Please stay strong for me. I'll talk to you again after a bit. There are some things I need to take care of. Aleesha, she will take care of you. I really want you to trust her, and that engineering guy?"

"The one who liked to drag you and me to meetings of her? What of it."

"Him too. Love you kiddo."

"you're my older brother."

"Yeah, but I'm not just your older brother you know."

Keith's eyes blinked. "Oh. You mean how you're also like a parent to me?"

"Yeah. You're not just my little brother, but my kid to. I know they're only three years between us, and it's kind of weird."

"Why? Why is it weird." Keith watched Shiro give him an exasperated look. "Is this another social thing I don't get."

"Yeah. It is. I'll see you again in a bit. While I'm here at the Mars colony, you and I are going to have some heartfelt conversations, but make some plans regarding what we'll do together when I get back?"

"Sure. And Shiro? I'm sorry for messing up all the time."

"No problem."

And yet it did feel like a problem.


	8. Tangled Mess

Her hair was a complete and utter mess, like it used to be before she cut it to try and get into the garrison. Her eyes drifted around her room, catching sight of the calendar date, noting the circle on the calendar indicating when her father and brother would return home, and yet this was months away from when the accident would have occurred. She walked over to her computer, listening to the whir of the desktop, while her laptop remained sitting to the side.

A deep sigh of relief filled her chest, her eyes catching sight of the news broadcasts regarding the return of those from the Kerberos mission. Pidge felt tears well up in her eyes, before wiping them away. "Dad, Matt and Shiro are safe."

She walked over to her bed, plopping down as her hands reached out for a pillow, hugging it to her chest tightly. "I wonder how the others are doing?"

Pidge's mouth twisted up into a frown, remembering how upset she was with everything, and how she'd left the Castle of Lions to try and get her thoughts together, wishing that the Kerberos mission never failed, because then three people she cared about wouldn't be in the hands of the Galra., Her hands tightened on her bed sheets at her side, remembering how the team started to fall apart because they lost Shiro.

Her golden eyes narrowed, as the thought hit her that they were losing Keith as well.

None of the others seemed to notice how Keith was starting to withdraw into himself, and Lance blaming him for Shiro not coming back didn't help, particularly since that was out of the red paladin's control, particularly with how protective everyone knew the black paladin could be. She also couldn't blame Keith for being upset with Shiro, as she was a tad upset herself.

What bothered her most was how detached Keith was becoming. No, Lance wasn't correct in saying Keith didn't feel anything. The problem was, it seemed that Keith felt Shiro's recapture even more, and yet Pidge couldn't puzzle together why. The red paladin simply didn't open up easily with other people. It felt like he wanted to, but there was a barrier there, one none of them seemed to be able to overcome, which frustrated her to no end.

She decided to go to sleep, not sure if she'd dreamed up everything, or that the others were even real. When she woke up, she went to school, hiding away from the girls who tended to tease her for acting so much like a boy. However, she overheard towards lunch how some of the return of the Kerberos mission was postponed. She headed home and saw the worried look on her face.

"Hey, the girls at my school are saying that the Kerberos mission is delayed in landing. Is this true? Are Matt and dad okay?"

"They're okay. So's the pilot. They're taking a few extra days at the Mars colony before coming back. Apparently, Takashi's younger brother is ill, so they're allowing the two time to talk via video communication before they come to the rest of the way home."

"He never said anything about having a younger brother." Pidge blurted the words out.

"You remember Takashi from when he came over to dinner."

The green paladin cleared her throat. "Um, no. I mean, I do remember him coming over to dinner a couple of times, but I was talking about how Matt never said his best friend had a younger brother."

The lie came with to much ease, and Pidge felt guilty as her mother's facial features were twisted up in emotional pain. "Takashi's family life is rather complicated. I am going to go and visit his younger brother tomorrow, as I've gotten permission to do so. Would you like to come with? I'm planning on packing some food for Akira. What do you think he would like?"

"Don't little kids like sandwiches."

"How about what you would like to eat if you got stuck in the hospital ward?"

"You can actually take him food?"

"I got permission to bring Akira some food. In fact, Takashi asked that I check in on him personally. Well, he asked through your father, but still."

"Peanut butter jelly and peanut butter cookies! Can we make peanut butter cookies tonight?" Pidge felt her mouth salivating, but also saw her mother's face brighten up.

"Sure."

The young paladin felt good getting to do something with her mother that she missed doing, but at the back of her head she hurt, thinking that she was to blame for Shiro's sudden turn of bad luck, but something else made her think that if something happened to his younger brother in captivity, the black paladin missed out on it, and had no clue what happened to his family. If felt like she was trying to make herself fill better for her wish, and yet she couldn't help but wonder if everything else had been a bad dream despite how real Allura and everything else felt.

Time also kept moving fast, and she soon found herself going with her mother, surprised that they were at the garrison medical section, let alone the psych ward. While her mother signed them in, she saw a white alien like creature floating around, and followed after the creature, slipping into a room, drawing her breath suddenly.

"Keith?" Her voice was light, but also strained, so the person in the bed didn't wake up. Pidge's eyes darted to the red paladin's wrists, and the guilt surged up. She walked over to the front of the bed, noticing the clipboard. She picked it up out of curiosity, drawing her breath tightly. The words on the page were most certainly not what she expected any more than the fact she suspected Keith would do something like he'd obviously did.

The ghost floated over to Keith as she read the words over, trying to make sense of everything in her mind. She read, " _Name: Akira Kogane; Legal Guardian: Takashi Shirogane; Relationship: Siblings…_ "


	9. Inner Turmoil

Not only did the red paladin still feel like he constantly messed up and that his messing up this time was a major problem, he also found himself bored to death. On top of having nothing to do, it seemed like someone came in to check on him every fifteen to thirty minutes, eating away at any kind of privacy he did have.

He wondered if hearing Allura's voice had anything to do with the small ghost-like alien which was nearby. He'd not seen it since it floated by the computer screen, and hadn't heard Allura's voice then. Thinking about that, however, was annoying, so he simply found himself sleeping when he wasn't eating or using the restroom, not sure if he was glad the twenty-four-hour watch was over, as he now found himself alone.

Something light landed on his chest, making his eyes flutter in annoyance, the first thing he saw being the strange ghost-like alien, but then his dark blue eyes blinked a couple of times. At the foot of his bed reading his chart was some strange girl, though something looked familiar about her. She wore a purple and white dress, much like the dress Pidge wore in…

Keith felt his throat tightening, watching his fellow paladin stare at the chart, not at all sure if she recognized him or not when she came in. They hadn't met before, and he personally doubted there would have been any reason for the two to have met in this particular timeline. Her mouth twisted up, making him not at all sure if he recognized him and found the situation as awkward as he did, or if he, like always, made the situation awkward.

His eyes drifted to her hands, realizing then that she had his medical clipboard, something the medical staff likely didn't think was something he could use to harm himself, but his mind already figured out quite a few ways to kill someone – namely the person right in front of him – with the clipboard. He felt his eyebrow twitch, knowing full well Pidge was taking in the details on the chart, meaning she knew what he and Shiro hadn't yet brought up with the other paladins.

The red paladin's fingers twisted around the bed sheets, knowing full well not telling the others that he and Shiro were siblings would cause problems, and yet he never felt comfortable enough with any of them to talk about family, particularly since the family in itself seemed like a rather touchy subject. His mouth open, his voice cracking as he spoke. "Pidge?"

The girl looked up, the color draining from the green paladin's faces as a female the red paladin didn't know came through the door carrying a lunchbox with her. Pidge glanced back down at the clipboard. "Keith?"

"Oh, so you already know Takashi's younger brother?" The woman seemed nice, but she was also a stranger to him, yet she knew who he was. His shoulders tensed up as she stepped over, placing the lunch box onto his bed, his eyes drifting down in confusion. "How are you feeling Akira?"

Keith took a deep breath, not at all sure what to say, hoping Pidge might be able to come up with something on the fly, particularly since she did end up managing to trick the garrison staff into believing she was a boy. "Kind of." The green paladin looked at him, attempting to come up with a story. "He kind of recued me from a tight spot with two idiot guys, and we've been friends ever since."

The red paladin felt the color drain from his face, his eyes drifting to the bedsheet where the ghost let out a yawn with it's very small mouth. He'd thought at first Pidge had recognized him, but for some strange reason this world ended up being different then before, and even more confusing. He heard Mrs. Hold let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, good. Takashi was worried you were still having trouble making friends. Katie and I brought you some lunch."

"It's peanut butter and jelly, but also peanut butter cookies. Mom and I made them last night."

"Um… thanks." The red paladin looked down at the box, his confusion growing, with the feeling of loneliness growing. He wasn't sure what to say, not sure how to react. He wasn't used to people being nice to him, and his tongue hurt, no words coming out. He found himself struggling to look Pidge in the eye, embarrassed by the fact she saw him in the one place he never wanted to be, let alone have anyone know that he feared ending up in.

A shudder ran down his spine, knowing full well the manner in which those from his country viewed mental illness.

The room remained silent, as he attempted to figure out what was wrong, but then Mrs. Holt spoke up rather softly. "I know I shouldn't, but would the two of you like some privacy to talk? I'll be outside within earshot, and so will some of the nurses."

Keith's head darted up, a bit of relief washing over him as the small ghost let out a yawn. Pidge pushed her lips together, worried about what to say next. Her mother left, and she looked up, trying to say something at the same time as Keith. The green paladin took a deep breath. "You first."

"Voltron?" His tone strained, sounding almost desperate.

"What?" Pidge's initial response made his heart sink, and he thought her words confirmed that this was a different reality where he'd met her under different circumstances, meaning the rules were changed, and he didn't know how to act. "I don't know where the lions are Keith. I don't know how to get out of this world. Actually…"

A sigh of relief left his mouth, his eyes closing. He felt his hands begin to tremble, just in time for the ghost to float up, and touch his forehead. "Um…" The creature pulled away, floating out of the room. Pidge's head turned to look at the creature. Keith's eyes blinked a couple of times. "You can see that?"

"Yes. More importantly…" The small paladin turned towards Keith, her eyes flashing with anger. Her tone of voice strained, but she kept her voice down so her mother couldn't hear them. Tears also welled in the corner of her eyes. "What the quiznack has gotten into you!"

"What?" Keith's dark blue eyes blinked a couple of times.

"How can you be…" Pidge moved forward, wrapping her arms around his thin frame, making the red paladin tense up, a few sobs coming out of her chest as she pressed her face into his chest.

"Pidge…" The fifteen-year-old reached up, unsure of what he should do, plus his wrists hurt badly. The girl let out another sob.

"How can you be so dense? Why would you of all people think of hurting yourself? Of trying to kill yourself?"

Keith's eyes blinked a couple of times. "I didn't."

"Stop being such a jerk!" Pidge pulled away, wiping away her tears, lifting the red paladin's hands up so he could see his bandaged wrists. "What about this? Why do this to yourself?"

The red paladin felt his blood run cold, and his mouth couldn't open to say anything. He felt guilt wash over him, and his facial features twisted in frustration. "I'm sorry?"

"Sorry?" A few more tears fell from her eyes. "If you're really sorry, then start telling me the truth." Pidge's finger poked his chest. "Why? Why did you hurt yourself?"

The fifteen-year-old pushed his lips together. "Do you know how one of the ways to wake up from a bad dream is to hurt yourself?"

The small female let out a deep sigh. "You're an idiot."

"I'm quite aware of my stupidity, how much of a failure I am, how I always mess up." Keith watched Pidge's facial features twist up in horror. "What?"

"What are you talking like that?"

"Because it's true. You said to start telling you the truth, so I am."

Pidge's eyes widened, her voice tightening. "Do you always take things so literally?"

"Yes. I do. It's a major problem of mine."

The green paladin sighed, pulling herself up to sit on the bed. "I'm sorry I called you an idiot Keith."

"Why? It's true."

"No it isn't."

"You said I was."

"It's a figure of speech for when someone does something very dumb." Pidge turned to look him in the eye, causing Keith to look away. "Don't you trust us?" The red paladin froze, his throat tightening as his eyes closed shut. "Why didn't you say anything about Shiro and you? It would have solved a lot of the problems between you and Lance, wouldn't it have?"

"Really? Would letting him know I have family there at the Castle of Lions have solved things?"

"I see your point."

Keith's eyes snapped open. "What?"

"Still…" Pidge let out a deep sigh as her mother peeked her head around the corner.

"Sorry kiddos. It's time for us to leave. I'll see if we can come back and visit tomorrow, Akira. Is that alright with you?"

"It doesn't matter." The red paladin looked at his hands, knowing full well it did matter. On one side, he didn't want to be alone. On the other side, the conversation he just had with Pidge hurt – it hurt a lot.

ver since."

The red paladin felt the color drain from his face, his eyes drifting to the bedsheet where the ghost let out a yawn with it's very small mouth. He'd thought at first Pidge had recognized him, but for some strange reason this world ended up being different then before, and even more confusing. He heard Mrs. Hold let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, good. Takashi was worried you were still having trouble making friends. Katie and I brought you some lunch."

"It's peanut butter and jelly, but also peanut butter cookies. Mom and I made them last night."

"Um… thanks." The red paladin looked down at the box, his confusion growing, with the feeling of loneliness growing. He wasn't sure what to say, not sure how to react. He wasn't used to people being nice to him, and his tongue hurt, no words coming out. He found himself struggling to look Pidge in the eye, embarrassed by the fact she saw him in the one place he never wanted to be, let alone have anyone know that he feared ending up in.

A shudder ran down his spine, knowing full well the manner in which those from his country viewed mental illness.

The room remained silent, as he attempted to figure out what was wrong, but then Mrs. Holt spoke up rather softly. "I know I shouldn't, but would the two of you like some privacy to talk? I'll be outside within earshot, and so will some of the nurses."

Keith's head darted up, a bit of relief washing over him as the small ghost let out a yawn. Pidge pushed her lips together, worried about what to say next. Her mother left, and she looked up, trying to say something at the same time as Keith. The green paladin took a deep breath. "You first."

"Voltron?" His tone strained, sounding almost desperate.

"What?" Pidge's initial response made his heart sink, and he thought her words confirmed that this was a different reality where he'd met her under different circumstances, meaning the rules were changed, and he didn't know how to act. "I don't know where the lions are Keith. I don't know how to get out of this world. Actually…"

A sigh of relief left his mouth, his eyes closing. He felt his hands begin to tremble, just in time for the ghost to float up, and touch his forehead. "Um…" The creature pulled away, floating out of the room. Pidge's head turned to look at the creature. Keith's eyes blinked a couple of times. "You can see that?"

"Yes. More importantly…" The small paladin turned towards Keith, her eyes flashing with anger. Her tone of voice strained, but she kept her voice down so her mother couldn't hear them. Tears also welled in the corner of her eyes. "What the quiznack has gotten into you!"

"What?" Keith's dark blue eyes blinked a couple of times.

"How can you be…" Pidge moved forward, wrapping her arms around his thin frame, making the red paladin tense up, a few sobs coming out of her chest as she pressed her face into his chest.

"Pidge…" The fifteen-year-old reached up, unsure of what he should do, plus his wrists hurt badly. The girl let out another sob.

"How can you be so dense? Why would you of all people think of hurting yourself? Of trying to kill yourself?"

Keith's eyes blinked a couple of times. "I didn't."

"Stop being such a jerk!" Pidge pulled away, wiping away her tears, lifting the red paladin's hands up so he could see his bandaged wrists. "What about this? Why do this to yourself?"

The red paladin felt his blood run cold, and his mouth couldn't open to say anything. He felt guilt wash over him, and his facial features twisted in frustration. "I'm sorry?"

"Sorry?" A few more tears fell from her eyes. "If you're really sorry, then start telling me the truth." Pidge's finger poked his chest. "Why? Why did you hurt yourself?"

The fifteen-year-old pushed his lips together. "Do you know how one of the ways to wake up from a bad dream is to hurt yourself?"

The small female let out a deep sigh. "You're an idiot."

"I'm quite aware of my stupidity, how much of a failure I am, how I always mess up." Keith watched Pidge's facial features twist up in horror. "What?"

"What are you talking like that?"

"Because it's true. You said to start telling you the truth, so I am."

Pidge's eyes widened, her voice tightening. "Do you always take things so literally?"

"Yes. I do. It's a major problem of mine."

The green paladin sighed, pulling herself up to sit on the bed. "I'm sorry I called you an idiot Keith."

"Why? It's true."

"No it isn't."

"You said I was."

"It's a figure of speech for when someone does something very dumb." Pidge turned to look him in the eye, causing Keith to look away. "Don't you trust us?" The red paladin froze, his throat tightening as his eyes closed shut. "Why didn't you say anything about Shiro and you? It would have solved a lot of the problems between you and Lance, wouldn't it have?"

"Really? Would letting him know I have family there at the Castle of Lions have solved things?"

"I see your point."

Keith's eyes snapped open. "What?"

"Still…" Pidge let out a deep sigh as her mother peeked her head around the corner.

"Sorry kiddos. It's time for us to leave. I'll see if we can come back and visit tomorrow, Akira. Is that alright with you?"

"It doesn't matter." The red paladin looked at his hands, knowing full well it did matter. On one side, he didn't want to be alone. On the other side, the conversation he just had with Pidge hurt – it hurt a lot.


	10. Rumor Mill

"Rumor has it Kagone's not in school because something bad happened to him."

Lance attempted to swallow back his nausea. Another girl spoke up, leaning forward. "Come on. How did you find out?"

"I heard it from someone who overheard the teachers, but they shut up when they realized one of the cadets was listening in."

"You know, I know he's the best pilot, but there are times I kind of wish he'd just die. He's such a jerk, blowing everyone off like he does, and does nobody any favors by being here. Nobody likes him."

"Do you think he knows that nobody likes him?"

"I don't think he even cares. Good riddance if he did something stupid this time that got him killed."

The blue paladin frowned, the cogs in his head going. " _I don't remember hearing anything like this before. What's up with all this negativity towards Keith. I mean, I get my own. I wanted to be friends with him, and he brushed me off, but I was also…_ " Lance sighed, not wanting to admit himself to be a loser. He stood up then, raising his hand. "Teacher! Where's Kogane!"

The teacher looked at him with a stupid face. "That isn't…"

"Some of us do care about him, you know!" Lance made a poignant glare at the girl, only to snap out of his delusion to find himself still sitting there, the confidence to stand up simply not coming. Rather weakly he stood up and raised his hand.

"What is it?"

"Sir, I'm not feeling well. I didn't eat breakfast, so I think I've come down with something."

"Fine, leave."

Lance shoved his hands into his pocket, catching briefly the worried look Hunk had on his face, before retreating back to his quarters. The blue paladin flopped onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling. "Quiznack."

The teen turned over onto his side, rather miffed at the entire situation, wanting to get back to his lion where he felt secure. He dozed off, waking up when Hunk nudged him awake. "Hey, you alright?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because you're worried about Keith?"

"Why would I be!" Lance sat up, his mouth trembling, a sniffling sound coming from his nose. One hand reached up to wipe away the snot coming from his nose.

"Come on. You were upset during class."

"I was not!" Despite his denial, Hunk to pulled him into a big hug. arms. "Quiznack." Sobs began to rack the blue paladin's body, but finally he calmed down, pulling away. "Fine, I was upset, maybe a little. I should have stood up to those girls, saying that nobody likes Keith. I mean, that isn't true."

Lance watched the yellow paladin take a deep breath. "Well, you and I like him, right?"

"You do, I don't. I'm not going to stop you from liking anybody buddy. It would be weird for you not to."

"Since you don't _care_ that I think of Keith as a friend, I'm going to be brutally honest with you and say you do to, but you're still miffed at him for turning down your attempts at friendship when we first got here."

"The dude didn't remember me when we rescued Shiro!" Lance flung his hands out. "He didn't care."

"Yes he did." Hunk pushed his fingers together. "See, I've kind of been watching, and even before we ended up being paladins together, it seemed to me that it wasn't that Keith didn't want to be friends with you. It was that he was surprised for some reason. Well, actually, I think I know the reason, but still. Then, when you thought he didn't want anything to do with you, you started this whole rival business, and he believed you were never sincere in the first place."

"I'm always sincere!"

"Which I think Keith's picked up on once he got to hang out with you, but before that… I don't know. What you did probably felt like a major blow, what with everything else that was going on."

"What do you mean. Everybody likes Keith. They only turned on him today because he's the newest piece of gossip."

"No Lance. That's how everyone always talked about Keith, You just…"

"Not the teachers! They always praised him, even rubbing in his skill after he got kicked out."

"… only payed attention to what the teachers said, and didn't notice what the other students did around Keith. The guys are jealous, the girls mad that he's clueless to their flirting thinking he's spurning their advances, when he simply doesn't get it."

"Come on. The guy was supposed to be the next Shiro for crying out loud! Everyone is going to be jealous of that!"

Hunk took a deep breath. "Which is another thing you haven't noticed. Keith's inferiority complex, particularly when it comes to Shiro."

Lance folded his arms across his chest. "Oh, so you're saying the two of us are alike now, huh Hunk."

"Nope. You don't have an inferiority complex, but Keith definitely does. He doesn't believe in himself."

"Shiro did! Yet he's pissed off at Shiro for making him leader, and not upset at all about the fact Shiro getting caught again."

Hunk's mouth formed into a pout as he shrugged his shoulders. "Don't know. But Keith trusts Shiro a lot, yet isn't able to trust Shiro's own judgement regarding his skills?"

"He double guessed going after the princess. I wouldn't say Keith trusts Shiro, because if he didn't we wouldn't have gotten into the mess we did."

"Really? I think the only reason things didn't end up worse than they did was because of Keith. I don't know how to explain this, but I don't think Keith would randomly question Shiro's judgement on anything, not unless he had good reason to. As he told Shiro, it was the exact opposite of what he said before, but when Shiro explained why, Keith didn't argue anymore, did he?"

"Well, no." Lance folded his arms, his own mouth twisting into a pout. "But still. He didn't react at all to Shiro's death."

"Did you ever notice that Keith got kicked out of the garrison _after_ the Kerberos mission failed? I mean, like, _right_ after?" Hunk folded his arms. "And wasn't it a bit odd that Shiro had clothes at Keith's place, but acted like he'd been there before? So, can you be a bit more truthful with me?"

"Fine. I am upset. I'm upset I couldn't stand up to those girls for talking bad about my friend. I'm upset I couldn't stand up to ask the teacher what happened in class, because I'm scared to find out what happened, because I don't want to lose Keith like we did Shiro. I'm also miffed at the fact Keith doesn't trust us one bit! I mean, we're supposed to be a bonded team, yet he's not tried to open up to us."

"Yes, he has." Hunk looked at the ground. "We've not exactly given him reason to trust us. I know, you're like, the most trusting guy in the world, but in the same regard, you and Keith are exact opposites of each other. Keith needs you to trust him to open up to you at his own pace. Something tells me pushing him out of his comfort zone will just keep backfiring."

"Come on Hunk." Lance let the corner of his mouth twist up. "How are you to blame? You give the best hugs ever. Keith should…"

"Keith doesn't like being touched. That day we finally formed Voltron on our own, well, Keith let me hug him, but he was really uncomfortable with me doing so."

"The first step to us getting him to trust us is for us to first find him. To do that, I think we need Pidge. You think there is a way we can contact her, tell her to meet up tomorrow as it is our day off, and we can go into town?"

"I can't hack like she can, so it will take me some time to find her information."

"Yeah, but she's our best bet in finding Keith."


	11. Team Conflict

" _How can we form Voltron when Keith doesn't trust us._ " Pidge muddled over this idea as she sat next to her mother in the passenger seat of the car. Her small arms crossed her chest. The green paladin felt like she'd managed to figure Keith out, even if what she figured out wasn't something she liked. One of the conclusions she came to was, " _Keith trusted us because Shiro trusted us, and that was because he trusted Shiro._ "

A deep sigh escaped from her mouth as her honey colored eyes looked up at the ceiling. Her mother's voice broke her concentration. "So, what do you think of Akira?"

Pidge's eyes blinked a few times, before looking over at her mother. Her eyes narrowed upon catching the twinkle in the woman's eye as she smiled, much of the worry having washed away. Pidge knew that look, and shrunk down into her seat. "Keith. That's what he likes being called."

"So the two of you really are close. I mean, you know that Akira doesn't like being called by his first name."

The green paladin pushed out her lip. "Isn't that kind of obvious when he never uses his real name? I mean, it was to the point I thought Keith was his real name."

"I see." Mrs. Holt turned her head, that joyous twinkle mingling with one of worry. "So, your relationship hasn't gotten that far?" Pidge felt her eye twitch, knowing what her mother was implying. She was glad that her mother didn't push it any farther. She arrived home, diving into her computers, but not without noticing the rather disappointed look on Mrs. Holt's face.

"Got it." Pidge grumbled. "You don't like me getting so engrossed with my computer work like this." The green paladin turned on the computer, heading to her e-mail. Her eyes widened upon seeing a message from someone, but let out a sigh of relief upon seeing Hunk's name. She opened up the letter.

_Hi,_

_We need your help finding Keith. Rumor around the garrison is that something bad happened to him, which was why he wasn't in class yesterday. I managed to find your e-mail. Would it be possible to meet up with you, you, me and Lance?_

_Hunk_

The green paladin pushed her lips together, at first thinking to refuse, but then realizing she needed to get the two to back off, remembering the look on Keith's face, knowing full well the entire situation made him uncomfortable, sent a note back about where to meet. She hurried down the stairs, grabbing her jacket.

"Katie?"

"I'm going out. I'm meeting up with a couple of friends." She noticed the rather surprised look on her mother's face, and yet no protest came her way. The small paladin found the yellow and blue paladins waiting for her. "So?"

"Who are you?" Lance's blue eyes narrowed, before switching to his flirtatious mode. "I mean, you are a pretty young lady, but…"

"That's Pidge…"

"Oh." The blue paladin swallowed, his eyes blinking in confusion. "This means you'll help us find Keith, right?" Lance tried giving her puppy dog eyes.

"What if Keith doesn't want to be found?" Pidge folded her arms across her chest.

"Why not! We need to get back to our world, to defend Voltron." The blue paladin stood up, irritation on his face. "It's bad enough we already lost Shiro."

Hunk tugged at the back of Lance's jacket, smiling as he did so. "He's actually worried, believe it or not."

"I am not worried about that stupid jerk."

"Sure. You do realize that to utter strangers we look like we're having some kind of weird role playing game." Pidge tapped her fingers on the café table.

"Hey, maybe that would be a good cover for us?" Hunk's eyes twinkled. "Plus, I love a good role play."

"Are you going to help us or not Pidge." Lance glared down at her, the anger quite evident.

"No."

"Because you can't."

"Nope."

"Don't you care about Keith at all?" Hunk's eyes widened, his mouth twisting into a frown.

"Yeah. I do. That's why I'm not telling you guys where he is." Pidge watched Lance and Hunk's eye widened, the shock quite evident on their faces.

"Wait. You know where…" The blue paladin sat down, letting the shock sink in. "How?"

"See, I'm not going to tell you guys that either. From my perspective, with what I know, I think you two should give him some space. Particularly after you laid into him like you did, _Lance_."

"He doesn't want to see us?" Hunk's lip twisted into a pout.

"Keith didn't want to see me either, and was very uncomfortable talking to me."

"Are you sure?" Lance's mouth twisted into a pout. "I mean, that you can't tell us?"

Pidge felt her gut lunge, looking at the two guys, suddenly wondering if appearing here was really a good idea, or if she should have blown them off completely. Her eyes closed, remembering how much she didn't like seeing Keith like that, with the bandages on his wrists. The memory was still stuck in her head, as was his rather candid manner of answering questions, but also how awkward the situation was.

"Please?"

"I wasn't comfortable being there."

"Isn't that because he's a guy?" The words came out of Lance's mouth. "We'd be far more comfortable."

"No. I wasn't comfortable because…"

"Yeah. I get that Keith can be a jerk sometimes."

"Would you shut up and listen to me!" Pidge snapped, watching Hunk flinch, and Lance's bottom lip twist up into a pout. "I was comfortable because I intruded upon Keith's personal space. He's not…" The small paladin stood up. "Never mind. You wouldn't get it Lance. You've never really gotten Keith, have you?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Lance stood up to block her, his eyes flashing with anger as he continued to pout.

"What I mean is the fact you don't know him, yet you act like you know how he thinks."

"So you do?"

Pidge took a deep breath. "I think the only one of us who ever really got Keith was Shiro."

"Yeah, well, Shiro's just that amazing." Lance rubbed the back of his head. "He's like that though."

"You really don't get it." The green paladin narrowed her eyes. "Keithdoes _not_ need you, of all people, bugging him!"

"What?" The blue paladin's facial features twisted up, making it quite clear the thin teen was hurt by what she said.

"You heard what I said." Pidge turned on her heals, storming away from the meeting, and yet feeling like she had accomplished nothing.


	12. Dark Black

Dealing with emotions honestly was never his strong suit, however, this time around Keith had a constant reminder of his emotional instability as he looked at his wrists. He knew full well growing up that he was quick to lose his temper, but could also go into rather deep depressions, leading to him keeping to himself through a good chunk of middle school. Thinking back on this, the young paladin tried soothing his emotions by moving his thumb and index fingers together in a slow motion, just as the ghost flew back into the room.

The red paladin took a deep breath, wondering if he would hear from Allura again. His dark blue eyes closed shut, his lips pushing together in frustration. " _She does need to know, though._ _I'm not understanding why she's not responding back – the ghost is there, like the other two times. What else factored into the equation._ " Keith let out a sigh, realizing he couldn't depend on Allura to make a plan to get all of them back. " _Shiro, the real Shiro_ , _he's waiting for us to rescue him._ "

This thought, however, did nothing in regards to fighting back the fact he still didn't want to see Lance, the fear of what the blue paladin would say eating away at him. In fact, he still feared what Pidge might think in regards to what she saw, and what she heard, but he missed the chance to ask her, and yet he knew the confidence to pry wasn't there either. As for Hunk, it ran down to the fact he honestly didn't want to see the yellow paladin cry over a mistake he made.

" _And yet, we've got to make a plan, and part of that involves not standing out. Unfortunately, I managed to do something that makes me stand out a lot. Some leader I am. I was only thinking of myself, and panicking back then. But then, I did think that everything was a dream, that I didn't get the chance to make friends for once in my pitiful existence._ " Keith let his hand pet the top of the ghost's head, hearing a cooing sound coming out of the alien, almost like a strange purr.

The conversation he had with Pidge also confused him. The only person he'd ever admitted to feeling ashamed of himself before was Shiro, and yet Pidge had asked him, to tell the truth. She told him specifically, that if he were really sorry for upsetting her, that he'd tell her the truth. He hadn't wanted to tell her _how_ he felt, but he also wanted her to believe him when he said he was sorry. This, however, didn't manage to make him feel any better about the situation and may have made things worse.

A knock at the door made him look up, and his eyes widened at seeing Aleesha there with the laptop. "I've got your older brother on video conference waiting to speak to you."

Keith felt a smile spreading across his face even though he knew this wasn't the real Shiro, something he tried telling himself as the slight happiness he felt also felt like something he didn't deserve. Aleesha walked over, setting the computer down on his lap. Something felt off, other than the lack of scar and a white lock of hair, but Keith couldn't place it beyond the fact the emotion on his older brother's face was one he'd not seen before.

"So…" Shiro took a breath. "Mrs. Holt visited you with Katie?"

"Yeah." Keith glanced away, not at all sure where the conversation would be headed next.

"Mrs. Holt said you and Katie have met before."

The red paladin's eyes blinked, noticing the strange look on Shiro's face. "So… Shiro, you know how I'm normally able to read you? But I'm not normally able to do that with people?"

"You're able to do that with Katie?"

"Um, well, her bawling her head off and chewing me out for doing something quite readable." Keith's confusion grew. "I'm not talking about that. Don't know how to read her at all. I mean, I can't tell what you're thinking right now, whether you're mad, or disappointed, or… your kind of acting weird."

The fifteen-year-old nearly jumped out of his skin as another familiar face appeared, that of the other Holt siblings. "Oh? So, you've noticed?"

The red paladin watched as Shiro's head turned, a slight blush appearing on his cheeks, while his eyes went wide. "Matt, don't go there! It's not funny, you suggesting such things which aren't true."

"Did you know my sister's the same age as you?" Matt piped up.

Keith remembered then how easy it was to talk to Shiro's best friend, even if he couldn't read the other eighteen-year-old. "No. I didn't. That said, it kind of makes sense."

"Oh? How so?"

"You're Shiro's age." Something clicked about the reaction from Shiro, something he'd never thought he'd see from his older brother. "I know. The reaction you're showing right now. It's flustered, isn't it." Keith watched as his brother's jaw dropped, and how the eighteen-year-old simply stared at him, almost as if he grew another head. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No, kiddo. You didn't."

"I'm not a kid." The red paladin's mind whirred, before something else came out of his mouth, something he'd not expected to say, but sounded quite logical in his own mind. "Hey. Shiro. If you were to marry Matt's sister, then I'd have two more siblings, a new brother, and sister." Keith watched as Shiro's face turned a vivid red as he just stared before a groan left the bigger mouth of the eighteen-year-old, his head lowering to the tabletop in front of him. Matt, on the other hand, fell over laughing. "What, did I say anything wrong?"

Matt stood up, trying to control his laughter, placing a hand on Shiro's shoulder. "Man, it's really bad when your brother of all people notices, in his own odd way."

"Notice what?"

"That your brother has a crush on my little sister, and was getting a little jealous because our mom is under the impression that you and Katie would do well together."

"I do not!"

Keith's eyes blinked a couple of times, confused at that particular revelation. Pidge felt more like a sister, and he could remember feeling jealous because he thought Shiro had found a new younger brother, only to realize later on that _he_ was actually a she. A blush, however, spread across his cheeks. "Wait? Shiro dating? As in kissing a girl!"

"Buddy, I think the only other option for him in regards to dating is to date a guy." Matt attempted to hold back his laughter.

"An alien?" The words came out Keith's mouth while Shiro let out another groan of frustration.

"That kind of response from you is one of the things I love about you, Keith." Matt piped up, making the red paladin's eyes blink in confusion. The older Holt sibling, however, held up his hands. "I forgot. You take things rather literally. What I mean by that is, it's something I like about you, but you do realize that I love both you and Shiro like siblings, right?"

"Oh." The fifteen-year-old let out a sigh of relief, a smile spreading across his face as he watched Matt continue to laugh at Shiro's expense, the smaller eighteen-year-old patting his friend's shoulder. It was rare that his brother couldn't regain his composure, but the oldest of the Holt's sibling always, from what Keith saw, managed to find kinks in Shiro's armor. The red paladin also thought back, wondering if he'd noticed anything, and yet felt if there was anything, Shiro kept it well hidden.

"Keith…"

The young paladin recognized the voice, but also the tone of worry coming from the person's voice. His dark blue eyes looked up into the bright blue ones and saw Lance standing there, his entire face twisted up in horror, the one person he feared finding out. He waited for a few ticks thinking Lance might say something snarky that would hurt, but he just stared, so Keith cleared his throat. "Lance?"

On the computer screen, Keith saw Shiro's composure change, but also watched Matt flinch back slightly due to picking up on the mood of the other eighteen-year-old. Takashi Shirogane's eyes were definitely darker than they usually were, which was never a good sign.


	13. Bully Factor

Lance felt awful.

Meeting up with Pidge simply left him feeling ill again, like he'd done something terrible, but also his worry regarding Keith grew. Hunk had pointed out the day before the fact Lance never really paid attention to what really went on around the red paladin, but Pidge's words hit deeply, as she accused him of being an annoyance to Keith.

"I don't find you annoying Lance."

The blue paladin let out a deep sigh. "Thanks, Hunk, but it's really not helping right now. That said, do you honestly think that Keith sees me as an annoyance?"

"Do you really want the honest truth?"

"Yeah."

"I think Keith's issue isn't so much that he sees you as an annoyance, but that he doesn't understand you, and yet I think he wants to. If I were to pick one thing though that may annoy him, it's the fact you insist you and he are rivals, when all he wants from you is to be his friend. Maybe you need this rival stuff, but he doesn't. I think in part he knows that there is a difference between your guy's skill levels, so he doesn't feel like he can treat you equally if you're his rival, but as a friend, differences and stuff don't matter."

"As friends, you accept people for who they are, regardless of their flaws." Lance let out a sigh. "Problem is, outside of Keith being a complete jerk, he doesn't have any flaws."

"Yes, he does. Don't you remember when you tried coming up with a catchphrase for us, and you said 'I say Vol, you say…"

"He kept saying Voltron." The blue paladin shook his head. "I'm not following, but I'll take what you said into consideration. I don't feel so good, so I'm going to the nurse's office when we get back."

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"Nah. They might make you stay, and you don't like the food they serve."

"That's true."

" _Plus, I need some time to think_." Lance shoved his hands into his pockets, heading straight to the medical ward for the garrison, which served both the military staff, but the cadets going through the program. He stepped up to the nurse's office, planning on signing in when the sound of two females gossiping caught his ear.

"How long is Kagone going to be staying in the medical ward?"

"I don't know. He's still being watched closely after what happened, which is quite understandable, given what happened."

The nasty feeling in the blue paladin's stomach increased. He carefully snuck away, peeking into the rooms, only to not find Keith in the main area. His eyes darted over to the psych ward, his lips pushing together. "No way." Curiosity got the better of him, and he slid into the area, being careful not to get caught. He found himself peeking into one of the rooms, his heart sinking upon seeing what he saw – Keith. The red paladin was distracted by the computer in front of him, allowing Lance to take in the fact the wrists of the other fifteen-year-old were bandaged up, which made the blue paladin realize exactly why the red paladin was in there. "Keith…"

Keith's head darted up, and the look on his face indicated he was surprised that Lance was there but also upset. "Lance?"

"Why is he here?" The familiar voice came from the computer, and yet the tone of voice used by the person wasn't one the blue paladin had ever heard from the black paladin.

"You're talking to Shiro?" Lance felt himself perk up slightly and hurried over despite the look on Keith's face that indicated the action wasn't a good thing. He peeked around the screen, waving as he did so. "Hiya!" His smile quickly faded the murderous look on Shiro's face, not something he expected. "Um!"

"Get out!" Someone who looked like Pidge was trying to attempt calming Shiro down. The eighteen-year-old pointed at Lance. "I don't want _you_ anywhere _near_ Keith! Do you hear me!"

"What! Why?" The blue paladin felt his mouth twist up into a pout.

"Why? Because _you_ are the one who's been bullying, and there is no way I'm going to put up with that _crap_ again!"

"Quiznack, what…"

"Lance…" Keith hissed out his name, and looking up he saw a level of fear he never expected.

"If I find out you've still been pestering him when I get back to Earth, I am seriously going to _kill_ you, do you…"

The red paladin closed down the laptop, and Lance saw Keith visibly swallow. He nudged his fellow paladin. "Hey? What's wrong with Shiro?"

Two dark blue eyes looked him in the eye, something which was rare for Keith. "Wrong?"

"Shiro's never treated me like that! He was a whole lot nicer to me back…"

"At the shack, and at the castle of lions." Keith looked away, swallowing again. "Lance, that's _not_ the Shiro you know."

"Not the Shiro I know? What do you…"

" _That_ Shiro has no memory of Voltron."

"But still…"

"You've got to leave."

"No."

"You've got to. Shiro's…"

Lance poked Keith in the arm, his voice trembling. "I can't. I'm mad at you."

"Because…"

The blue paladin sat down on the bed, moving closer to Keith so that his back was against the red paladin's arm, allowing him to feel his fellow paladin tense up. Lance leaned his head back. "'cause one of my friends hurt himself, that's why I'm mad at you."

"You…" The red paladin stopped speaking.

"Yeah. I'm that amazing."

"No. You've got to leave. You don't know what Shiro can be like."

"Yes, I do."

"No. You don't."

"Lance!"

The blue paladin flinched, hearing Aleesha's voice. He turned his head, the smile fading from his face as he looked at the woman standing in the doorway, her mouth twisted into a frown. He ended up swallowing. "Sis…"

"Wh…" Keith spoke softly, confusion in his voice.

Aleesha walked over, grabbing onto his arm, dragging him from the room. "Out. Now."

"But…"

"No buts, Lance." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Keith move to get up, only for Aleesha to glare at the red paladin, stopping the teen from leaving. "You need to stay put." The blue paladin found himself dragged away to her office, not liking the look in Keith's eye – he read fear, confusion, and misgiving, yet didn't understand why. "What do you think you're doing?"

"What did it look like?" Lance plopped down on the couch, glaring at his sister as he crossed his arms.

"Upsetting Cadet Kagone, something it seems like you've been fond of."

"What do you mean?" The blue paladin leaned forward, rather pissed off.

"Did you know the only reason Takashi didn't bring up the fact he suspected you of bullying Keith is because he knows you're my younger brother?"

"Yeah, suspecting is _not_ the same thing as having proof!"

"Alright, so suspecting wasn't the right word."

"What are…" Lance felt his nostrils flare.

"I'm talking about the fact Keith told him some of the things you did, but that he hoped it wasn't anything serious as you were _my_ brother. Do you know what kind of situation this puts me into? I'm supposed to be the person that you cadets go to when a bullying situation goes on, yet it's my own brother who caused the situation."

"Seriously!" The blue paladin stood up, only to be silenced by a glare.

"I am serious. You are to stay away from Cadet Kagone. I will not be responsible for what happens to you if these bullying tactics of yours keep up, but you will not like the consequences. For now, head back to your dorm room. I _will_ , however, need to speak to Iverson about this."

"Out! And I'd better not catch you back in the medical ward unless you have a real injury or illness!"

Lance stood up, before storming back to the dorm room he shared with Hunk. The yellow paladin looked up in surprise. "Hey, I thought."

"I hate my sister!" The blue paladin plopped down onto his bed, screaming into his pillow.

"Okay, what happened?" Hunk came over, shaking Lance's shoulder.

"What happened?" Lance turned over. "Can you believe Shiro, of all people, accused me of bullying Keith! Quiznack! What is up with this world!"

"Wait? She knows something about Keith? Did you find something out?'

The blue paladin let out a sniffle. "Yeah. I did. I don't think you want to know, though."

"Lance…" Hunk's facial features twisted up in worry.

"He slit his wrists Hunk." Lance watched the yellow paladin take a deep breath, his best friend's words sinking in. "And no, I don't know why he would do that. That also said the adults suspect someone is bullying Keith."

"So, what? You want to find out who it was because you want to clear your name?"

"Well, clearing my name would be awesome. But if someone is bullying Keith here, do you think we should do something about it? He is our friend after all."

"Yeah. But I don't know what we can do."

"I don't either." Lance frowned. "I'm kind of surprised, though, that somebody like Keith would _be_ bullied."


	14. Trust or

In the long run, he'd never been able to trust adults. Keith's mistrust honestly started when he was younger, when he found himself ripped away from his older brother after their parent's death, resulting in the removal of the one stable thing in his life.

Then, the branch family he'd found himself adopted into made it quite clear their expectations of him – there really were none, except there were, just not the type of expectations good parents should have of their children. He was there so that the heir to the Kogane branch could have an heir, but he was also expected to be the exact opposite of himself, a quiet child who caused no trouble what-so-ever. In other words, they expected him to be perfect.

Sometimes he got to spend time with his brother, yet he never felt like he belonged in the Shirogane family. Gossip which he didn't understand at the age of the four became clarified by over zealous classmates looking for an easy target for bullying, until he got into a few fights, resulting in his adoptive parents no longer turning a blind eye, yelling at him for the fights, then his grades dropping, until he finally became a hikikomori.

It didn't help the fact he honestly never understood how to properly socialize with people either, which was part of the reason the kids at school knew full well he would also be an easy target for their bullying. The teachers, of course, did nothing, as in Japanese society one focuses not the individual, but the group, so the interests of one child seemed to hold little interest. And yet deep down Keith also knew, had he still had the Shirogane family name, reactions would have been different.

No point in ever bringing up the fact Shiro was his brother either, as this resulted, particularly after Takashi Shirogane began to gain fame, in people, including adults, calling him a liar. Even some of the people in the family, including the branches, gossiped about the fact Keith was likely _not_ a Shirogane, but simply Shiro's half-brother, the result of a scandalous affair his mother had, someone he struggled to remember.

The garrison also lied about Shiro. Actually, the garrison tried helping too much after Shiro's supposed death, acting like they knew what was best for him, and yet he also knew they saw him as Takashi Shirogane's problematic younger brother who caused trouble no matter where he went, his behavior baffling everyone, including the garrison psychiatrist, who told Keith that he could trust her.

However, there she was pulling Lance away, unwilling to listen to the fact Lance was actually welcome, even wanted there in that lonely room. Even Shiro wasn't listening, the one adult Keith normally trusted, and yet the red paladin knew exactly where his older brother was coming from. Shiro, despite what many people thought, was far from perfect, a switch flipping whenever he thought Keith would get hurt, not physically, but emotionally, particularly due to knowing how much emotional pain his younger brother already went through.

And yet Lance's being there was a welcome sight, unexpected to say the least. The blue paladin hadn't made fun of him, or mocked him, but instead showed genuine concern. Lance also showed a steadfast loyalty despite all of their differences, insisting he would not abandon Keith until the adults said otherwise, leaving Keith alone in the room, staring up at the ceiling, even more, unsure of what to do, as adults did some very strange things as far as he was concerned.

Thus, he found himself lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling of his room in the psych ward, when a paralyzing feeling swept over his body, his eyes the only thing that could move. His limbs couldn't move, and yet he saw someone come into the room, making him swallow, knowing full well his gut reaction would be to attack the person if he could move, for the person was alien in nature, mostly humanoid, but with pale skin the color of the moon, and eyes entirely black.

She came over, leaning over. "Well, haven't you been a problem?"

A shudder ran down Keith's spine, his mind panicking. " _What does she want?_ "

"None of you should know that this isn't the real world, but should be happy and content, managing to bond with each other without all of those worries running through your head, and yet you are the most worried of all, the one whose supposed to lead Voltron. This is, after all, the world that all of you wished for."

"I didn't."

The female blinked a couple of times, her hand touching his arm gently, sending a wave of nausea through his body. At least he could speak, but for some reason, he knew that nobody would come to his rescue, let alone whether he would remember any of this. "This world, is it not a happy place for you? You have your older brother back, do you not?"

"I tasted what it was like to actually have friends." Keith closed his eyes, planning on keeping his mouth shut.

"That…" The woman seemed perplexed. "Except, you should have forgotten that. See, this is an alternate world where none of that happened, and…"

" _Allura!_ "

" _Keith? What is…_ " Keith opened his eyes so that Allura could see what he was dealing with. " _Oh dear._ "

" _Allura, this is the aliens that are doing this to us._ "

" _Yes, but it's rather odd for them to step in this soon. Usually, when they step in, they release those from the alternate world, as they've succeeded, but she doesn't look happy, and…_ "

"How are you able to respond to the Altean Princess? I'm a bit surprised really, that you two have bonded like that, but even so, _that_ shouldn't exist in this world, as this world is built on the premise that the Galra and Alteans do _not_ exist." The female reached out to close Keith's eyes. "Anyways, you will most definitely not be remembering any of this."

Keith's eyes snapped open, the panic still there despite not remembering what happened. " _Allura!_ "

" _I'm here._ "

" _What happened. I know something happened._ "

" _I…_ " Allura's voice paused. " _I am not sure if it is a good idea to explain. The aliens that are doing this, they've got rules in how they do things._ "

" _It's bad enough that…_ " Keith's mind whirled, as his stomach began to lurch. He found himself lunging over the side of the medical bed, ending up on the floor, vomiting uncontrollably, the anxiety having built to his peak as he spewed his last meal onto the floor. This was yet another reason for him to end up stuck in her for good.

The medical staff rushed in, touching him. His normal reaction to fight back at such touch wasn't there, and they pulled him back up into the bed. One of the nurses piped up. "Do you think he's remembering what happened to him? You know, that night?"

"Shush. We're not supposed to talk about that."

Keith's eyes closed, his fingers twisting around the sheets, making his wrists hurt a little.


	15. Shirogane Family

The cadets at the Japanese garrison milled about gossiping, for the most part, the normal gossip. However, some of the cadets talked about the fact the Kerberos mission's arrival back on Earth was delayed by a couple of days, causing a stir as quite a few were waiting for Shirogane Takashi to return. One of the girls walked over to one of the other cadets. "Hey, Ryo. Do you know why your cousin's been delayed getting back? Everyone's talking about it."

"I honestly don't know. I've not heard anything from the rest of the family."

"Shirogane Ryo." The fifteen-year-old's head darted up, his mouth pressing together to look at the teacher. "You're needed in the office. Your grandfather wishes to see you."

Ryo took a deep breath, before standing up to walk to the office. Upon arriving, he noticed his eleven-year-old sister standing outside of the door, her arms folded behind her. She was dressed form head to toe in a traditional Kimono, but he payed her little mind. "Rei."

She opened her mouth to say something, only for him to enter the office. For some reason the scene seemed strangely familiar, with his older brother sitting over in the tearoom section of the office so that the garrison commander could hold a traditional tea ceremony for meetings if the need arose. Across from him sat their grandfather, both members in the grey uniform of the garrison. Ryo narrowed his eyes, before stepping over and making a deep bow. He sat down when the family head nodded his head, noting the long bundle next to his brother, as well as the sword attached to his brother's side, making him finger his own that the garrison allowed him to carry.

"Ryo, I'm having you transfer to the garrison Takashi attended."

The young man froze up, his entire body tensing up. He wanted to say something about how this move angered him, but instead kept his mouth shut. A thought crossed his mind, the question of why. "Sir…" Ryo swallowed. "I apologize for asking this, but is there a reason why? Is there anything I need to know about this transfer? It doesn't have anything to do with why Takashi-nii's mission to Kerberos is delayed in returning?"

"Yes, it does." Their grandfather looked at the two sternly. "There was an incident with Akira. Your brother Shinji is transferring as well to look into the incident fully, so he's been given more information then you regarding what occurred. You are to keep an eye on him." Ryo felt his nostrils flare, but also his teeth grind together. Any hope that their grandfather hadn't noticed quickly fled. "I am aware of the fact you do not like your cousin Akira, but you are to put aside any animosity you have towards him to do your duty to the family."

Ryo felt his lips push together, taking in a deep breath. "Sir…"

"I don't want any arguments from you."

"I'm going to freely admit that I'm not fond of him, as he's a bit… odd. However, I'm a little bothered with the insinuation that he needs someone to keep an eye on him? He's been trained in the family's martial arts like the rest of us, and could easily defend himself. Why am I needed?" Ryo caught his brother turning his head, giving him an exasperated look as he did.

"Whether Akira is able to take care of himself is a mute point. You are the second son of the second son, so it is your duty to serve as the body guard to the second son of the first son, regardless of what is going on. You're dismissed."

Ryo stood up, leaving the room with his brother, not noticing his sister following behind him. "Seriously…"

"Don't ask me for details Ryo. You know that I'm not allowed to say anything regarding the situation Akira found himself in. Go and pack your bag."

"I feel like I'm being punished."

"Yes, well, I suspect Akira will feel the same way."

"Grandfather's never requested something like this before. He knows that the two of us have never gotten along, and we usually have a scuffle."

"That's because you're always challenging him to fight you in the dojo despite the fact you know full well the family wasn't consistent in his martial arts training like they were us. You're jealous of his natural skill."

"Am not."

"You are. Those fights which ended in a draw, or you barely winning, it would have been much different if Akira had proper training. You need to put those negative feelings aside. Also, you need to know that Takashi's the one who made the request, not grandfather." They arrived at Ryo's dorm room as what his brother said sunk in, and he stepped into the room, grabbing his duffle bag, packing clothing into his duffle bag. Shinji set the bundles down in front of Ryo, making the fifteen-year-old eye the bundle. "Don't forget this."

"That looks like it's a katana. Is grandfather finally giving one of his own?"

"Yeah, but that's a bit worrisome."

"I don't see why." Ryo packed the bundle into his duffle by placing it sideways, carefully packing his clothes around it. "He may have a temper, and his common sense is a bit skewed, but he's never tried to kill anybody."

"That's not exactly…"

"Ryo-nii?"

Ryo turned his head, hearing Rei speak up. "Hey. Why are you still here?" He looked down at the bundle she held out. "What's that for?"

"For Akira-nii."

The fifteen-year-old blinked, confusion rattling around in his head. "Why?" He felt the bundle shoved into his arms, before Rei turned away, a light blush on her cheeks. "What is up with her?"

Shinji sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "You don't know? There's less of an age gap between her and Akira then there is between her and Takashi."

"And…"

"Some of the aunts have been spreading rumors again about grandfather's plans regarding political marriages within the family. I'm not sure if she's like that because she believes the rumors, but of if she really does have a crush on him."

"Wonderful. That's just…" Ryo made to set the package aside, not wanting to pack it in his bag, only for Shinji to pick it back up. This made the fifteen-year-old look the nine-teen-year old in the eye. "Really? Are you really going to encourage our sister? She's only eleven. It's not as if she's going to know I didn't give it to him."

"Yeah, but you get to be the one to lie to her about not giving that to Akira."

Ryo felt his face twitch, placing the package in with his clothes and books, lifting it up over his shoulder. Shinji patted his shoulder. "Keep a book out. I'm the one piloting."

A groan escaped the younger brother's lips. He picked up one of the books, opening it up, only to snap it shut hoping his brother hadn't caught sight of the photo he was using as a bookmark.


	16. Complications

" _I've never been disappointed with Keith."_

" _And yet you're against your brother getting an official diagnosis placing him on the spectrum?"_

" _And how do you think our family would react? How's he going to react? All I need to know is what I need to do to help him. That's the way it's always been, just the two of us._ "

The response Aleesha got back then from Shiro was never one she was thrilled with, and yet she understood where he was coming from. The two teens came from a strict Japanese family, one which had managed to ostracize the younger sibling by saying a wide range of things. In western society, having an explanation for a child's behavior was a good thing, but not so much in Japanese society, as there was still a stigma regarding mental illness, and they wouldn't listen to the fact Keith was high functioning.

She thought she'd made it clear though, that she and her fiancé were both there for the two brothers if they needed them, thus it was rather disappointing when Shiro called her in a panic, asking her to get Lance away from Keith, and that the person who was bullying the younger sibling was in fact her own. " _You didn't trust me enough?_ "

" _No. It's not that._ "

There hadn't been much time for her to pry, as she needed to get Lance out of Keith's room. She heard the voices of the two fifteen-year-old teens, but not what they said, instead rounding the corner saying her brother's name. Lance startled, and Keith seemed surprised when the young man called out to her, revealing they were siblings. She headed in, angry at the fact Lance had somehow used that sneaky ability of his to sneak past the nurses to pester Keith Kagone, which made telling him to stay away from the other cadet, before heading to Iverson to report in.

"I'm not liking what's been reported to me regarding Cadet Kagone. Neither is Commander Shirogane."

"Is Commander Shirogane going to be doing anything?" Aleesha pulled her hands behind her back. "Such as not allowing Takashi Shirogane custody over his younger brother? Actually sir, I am here to inform you that it is quite probable that my younger brother has been tormenting the younger sibling this last year at the academy."

"That pest?" Iverson let out a sigh. "No, Commander Shirogane said he's not going to interfere, though he also said when I talked to him that Leutenant Shirogane hadn't yet contacted him about the matter. I'm also not surprised to find out that your younger brother has been a pest to Cadet Kagone, as he tends to not be very aware of how some of the things he says and does come across. Are you telling me that you want me to pursue anything? Because unless Cadet Kagone comes forward and confesses to me that something is going on, or the teachers catch something, there is nothing I can do. And no, you can't try to get a confession from Kagone, as that's a conflict of interest."

"You would need some kind of proof that your brother interacting with Cadet Kagone is causing some kind of psychological problem."

"Understood." Aleesha took a deep breath, before collecting her thoughts and walking back to her office. She arrived, only to have a rather frantic nurse come over.

"Mam. Cadet Kagone had an episode."

"What do you mean had an episode."

"I'm sorry, but Cadet Kagone woke up vomiting and in a panic. The medical staff had to help him back into his bed."

"Wait. The staff actually managed to help him into the bed without him attempting to kill him?" Aleesha pushed up on her glasses as she worried her bottom lip.

"No mam. He didn't put a fight at all, actually."

The garrison psychiatrist headed to the young man's rooms, before heading over to the young man's bed. Keith's eyes were shut. Taking a deep breath. "Keith?"

"Sorry…" One of the male nurses came into the room. "We sedated him. His entire body wouldn't stop trembling. Did we do anything wrong?"

"No." Aleesha walked over, straightening out the young cadet's hair, remembering Shiro doing the same one time Keith fell asleep in her office. "Keep an eye on him. I'll give you further instructions in a bit. I need some time to think." Arriving in her office, she turned on the video call to the commander. "Sir. About me having a reason…"

"Good timing. Commander Shirogane is on the other line. Apparently, Lieutenant Shirogane finally contacted him regarding the incident. We'll be having a conference call"

"I see." Aleesha watched as the screen split, allowing her to see both commanders. Commander Shirogane was rather intimidating, much in the same manner Shiro could be intimidating, particularly when protecting his younger brother. "Sir, did Commander Iverson inform you about my younger brother's involvement in the matter."

"I believe his involvement is miniscule."

"I still would like to be cautionary, and request that my brother not go anywhere near Cadet Kagone unless class calls for it, but also making sure neither one is paired up with each other for anything. Your grandson… I mean, Cadet Kagone, had a meltdown in his room just a few minutes ago, and I can not say this meltdown did not have anything to do with a visit my brother payed him."

"I see. Take the actions you must. This is actually regarding the incident the other night, and the condition Akira Kagone was found in."

Aleesha didn't like how distant the man sounded regarding his grandson. "Yes sir."

"I'm sending two of my other grandsons. The older two will be transferring in as a new teacher at the garrison and will be looking into the matter of the drug found in Akira's system. The other will be joining Akira in class, and will be sticking to him like glue, so you need not worry about the bullying either. I wish for you to have Akira prepared to check out of the psych ward by lunch time tomorrow."

"Sir?" Aleesha took a deep breath, not at all sure where the man was trying to go with this. "I thought you weren't going to interfere. Do you not think Takashi would be able to handle the matter? Or are you concerned that things will go cold?"

"I actually honestly trust Iverson to take care of my grandson, and see personally that the matter is looked into, and would have let things be despite the fact I do have my concerns. It was Takashi who made the request. Specifically, he asked specifically for Shinji and Ryo, but if Akira asked, I am the one who put forward the request. Cadet Shirogane will be by tomorrow after morning classes to pick up Cadet Kagone while Sub-Lieutenant Shirogane will keep me informed while Lieutenant Shirogane is in transit."

"Yes sir." She watched the video turn off, shaking her head as she did so. "Commander Iverson?"

"I don't like this any more than you do. However, the Shirogane family is a rather major family, and a personal attack on them is problematic.

"Yes, but Keith's never been a major factor in the Shirogane family, has never _been_ on their radar. He's an outcast, from what he's told me, and from his brother's point of view as well."

Iverson's eyes narrowed, darkening as his fingers folded together. "I know. Why touch Cadet Kagone when he means nothing to the family, unless there is something the family hasn't made us or his brother aware of? Perhaps this is a personal attack against the older brother."

"Wouldn't that mean someone would need to have made the connection? I mean, either way – whether the real target was Takashi or not, they would need to know that Kagone is actually a Shirogane."

"That's what's even more problematic. It means that someone has either broken into our records, or has done some digging into the Shirogane family, perhaps having found their family records regarding the adoption? Also, isn't Takashi Shirogane pushing for his brother's family name to be changed back to Shirogane?"

"Yes, but Japan is very strict regarding any information regarding minors The leak must be coming from our side, but who is not something I can quite imagine." Aleesha let out a deep breath. "This makes a case of bullying seem so simple in comparison.


	17. Leg Work

Lance found himself struggling to sleep, worrying about the situation his fellow paladin found himself in, so when he awoke in the morning he found Hunk pulling him to his feet, bemoaning the fact the blue paladin didn't need to miss breakfast to many times. The blue paladin's head hit the table. "Do you know what I hate?"

"What would that be?"

"The fact regular high school only meets six days a week, but garrison school meets five days a week, and you get to go on leave. Those who live off base are so lucky, 'cause we're stuck here."

Hunk frowned. "Hey, this isn't a complaint that Keith gets to go off base, even lives off base, and the fact you're jealous of that again?"

"Kind of. I just realized something though."

"What?"

"If Keith lives off base, what if the bulling occurs off base, but not on base."

Hunk's lips pushed together. "Oh. Well, some of it likely occurred on base, possibly. I mean, I'm not very athletic, and I'm in the engineering division, so I don't have a lot of classes with him. You've got more as a cargo pilot, but even then, you're not really in with the other fighter pilots."

Lance poked away at his food, finally giving his half-eaten food to Hunk before heading off to their morning class, knowing full well a certain seat would remain empty. He sat back in his desk chair, putting his feet up on the desk, while his arms folded behind his head, his lips pushing together as his brain tried to think of a solution to Keith's problem, when one of the fighter pilots stormed in, slamming his desk into another.

One of the blue paladin's eyebrow's shot up. "What's his problem?"

Apparently, the guy in question spoke up to one of his friends. "I just got kicked down to cargo pilot because of stupid transfer student, that's what. And we've got a new transfer student."

Lance's blue eyes widened, as his mouth opened, realizing that he'd just been bumped down to the second position among the cargo pilots, and a sigh escaped his lips. " _Good grief. On top of my not being bumped up to fighter pilot, I've taken a dip._ " He took a deep breath, urging his mind not to blame Keith for the sudden turn of events. " _Still. Coincidence? I think not._ "

"You'd think that Kagone getting into whatever trouble he got would have gotten kicked out of the program, thus leaving a slot open, but no! He's still in the program."

The blue paladin felt his mouth tighten as he looked at the young man. " _Man, he sounds so… did I ever sound like that? No way._ "

The teacher came into the room, clearing his throat indicating all the students should take their seats. At his side was a blade. "Cadets, I am Sub-Lieutenant Shirogane, and I've transferred recently from the garrison in Japan." Lance heard the mummer erupt through the classroom, the corners of his mouth wrinkling up. "Also transferring with me is the Japan's top student, Ryo Shirogane. Please introduce yourself."

The young man stepped in, also wearing a sword at his side, and a gym bag at his side before the young man took a slight bow. "My name is Shirogane Ryo."

The teacher cleared his throat as Lance's eyes widened even more. "It's given name first, then family name."

"My name is Ryo Shirogane." The young man bowed again. One of the girls stood up, her hand waving in the air. Lance recognized her as the girl who commented about him crashing the day they left on the lions. "Apologies, but I do not wish to answer questions regarding my transfer. The decision was made rather suddenly, and I've not even had the chance to settle into my assigned quarters."

The teacher came into the room, clearing his throat indicating all the students should take their seats. At his side was a blade. "Cadets, I am Sub-Lieutenant Shirogane, and I've transferred recently from the garrison in Japan." Lance heard the mummer erupt through the classroom, the corners of his mouth wrinkling up. "Also transferring with me is the Japan's top student, Ryo Shirogane. Please introduce yourself."

The young man stepped in, also wearing a sword at his side, and a gym bag at his side before the young man took a slight bow. "My name is Shirogane Ryo."

"Sorry, but I am not here on a social call, but to complete my military education. The decision to transfer was made rather suddenly, and I have, as of yet, had the chance to settle into my assigned quarters."

Lance folded his arms as his mouth formed a deep pout. " _Come on. Stop being a jerk and just admit that you're Shiro's younger brother, and that's your older cousin, though why you're here I honestly do not know. Was this planned the whole time, for you to transfer and live with Shiro, only for it not to happen when he died. Man, you not knowing what happened to your brother for real._ "

The blue paladin let out a sniff, while the teen who'd stormed in, in an agitated mood grumbled outloud. "Show off. He's worse than Kagone, and I didn't even think that was possible."

"Nah. Always planned. Spoiled military brat simply didn't know it. Hope Kagone kicks his butt."

The blue paladin let one eye rise up, his confusion growing, as he'd yet to hear about this turn of events. " _Keith didn't say anything, but then, he's not exactly doing to good._ " The teen moved to sit, the whispered continuing, but those right near him shutting up rather quickly. Lance stared at him.

"What?"

The blue paladin nearly fell out of his seat, before attempting to pretend to be interested in class. Around lunch time, he headed with Hunk to the lunchroom, stopping at the ranking board. He folded his arms across his chest. "Huh. You'd think that someone who was Shiro's brother would be the top of our class, but Keith's got the new kid beat."

"We don't know that he's Shiro's brother."

"Sure he is. They share the same last name."

"Not everybody who shares the same last name are siblings hunk. In fact, not everybody who doesn't share the same last name _isn't_ siblings, if one really thinks about it."

"Whatever. Do you think he'd help us?"

"Help us with what?"

"Finding out whose bullying Keith? I mean, he's Shiro's brother, so if Shiro would be wanting to help out – although he did blame me – don't you think his little brother would."

"Well… are you like your siblings?"

"As if I'd want to be like Aleesha!" Lance folded his arms, remembering how she'd kept him away from their current leader. "I don't get why she was so, so…"

"Excuse me." The blue paladin turned his head, surprised at being called out, recognizing the voice. The young man looked rather irritated. "Do you know where the infirmary is?"

"Why? Are you suddenly feeling ill?" The disgruntled demote stepped forward, putting his face right into Ryo's. "Because you certainly aren't welcome here."

"I'm looking for the infirmary, because I'm looking for someone." The dark look in the young man's eyes made the guy back off quickly.

Hunk took a deep breath, before blurting out the instructions. He went and sat down with Lance, munching away at his food, when the yellow paladin suddenly got a funny look on his face. "Hey, you don't think he was looking for Keith, do you?"

Lance dropped his eating utensil, a spork to be exact, onto his trey. "Yeah, that's kind of weird. But why?"


	18. Green and Red

"What do you mean I can't go and see Keith today?" Pidge sat at the breakfast, her spoon hovering in front of her mouth, not believing what her mother said. "I don't have school today. I know the garrison students do, but Keith's still in the infirmary isn't he, so he can't attend classes? Plus, you said we could."

"No. I said I would see, and the answer is no."

"Yeah, but…" Pidge felt the corners of her mouth turn down, her frustration growing. She pushed her bowl aside. "I'm going to go upstairs to my room. I'm not hungry anymore."

The green paladin headed upstairs, before pulling out her backpack, putting her computer in, before heading downstairs. She peeked into the living room, letting out a deep breath when she saw her mother busy working on one of her sewing projects, a smile on her face, before slipping into the kitchen to grab a few snacks to pack into the bag, before scribbling down a note letting Mrs. Holt know she was out and about.

She headed to one of the buses heading out to the garrison and got off before proceeding into the garrison without anyone noticing she was even there. She even slipped into the nurse's office when they weren't looking, before peeking into the red paladin's room. "Keith?"

Her voice hissed in a rather obnoxious manner, only to find the red paladin not responding to her. She repeated her action, only to find herself needing to take a more direct route. She walked in, watching as Keith lay on his side looking at the wall. Bags were under his eyes, indicating he hadn't slept. She reached out to nudge him, as he seemed to have not seen her. "Keith?"

Pidge nearly jumped out of her skin when the red paladin flinched, pulling back away from her. His dark blue eyes blinked a couple of times. "Sorry."

"What for?" She leaned in closer, making him swallow as she lifted up her hand to touch his shoulder, only to watch him flinch away.

"Sorry."

"Don't be. Something happen? 'cause mom told me we couldn't to see you today, but I snuck in any way." Pidge's hands tightened on the straps of her backpack while the red paladin stared at her as if she were crazy. "What?"

"Just…" Keith stared at her, not moving. "Nothing."

"Come on. Something did happen." The green paladin reached out to touch his shoulder but stopped short. "You're kind of jittery."

"I'm just not feeling too good."

"Oh." Pidge pointed to the position on the bed right in front of his stomach. "Is it alright if I sit here?"

The red paladin looked up at her with his dark blue eyes, almost as if he were unsure, before lightly nodding his head. The green paladin sat down next to him, close enough to feel Keith tense up as she pushed herself up against his stomach, only to feel him relax after a few minutes. Her mouth pushed together, listening to his breathing, but also how he didn't speak up.

"You don't like being touched."

Glancing over, she could see Keith's eyes were closed. "Sort of. It's kind of hard to explain."

"I know you said nothing happened, and that you're just not feeling good, but I still get the feeling something happened."

"I'm not sure how to explain what happened." Keith's eyes fluttered a bit, before looking up at her. He leaned on one arm. "It's kind of embarrassing, really."

"If you could explain, would you tell me?" Pidge took a deep breath, expecting the red paladin to say no.

Instead, she felt him sit up, pulling one knee up to his chin ever so slowly. "I talked to Shiro last night." The green paladin folded her arms across her chest, a tad irritated that the other paladin managed to change the subject. "I told him, that, if you and he were to marry…"

Pidge felt her cheeks heat up, and dived for Keith's pillow, pulling it away as she sat up, not noticing the startled look on his face at her sudden interruption, before taking the pillow to his face, causing the red paladin to let out a decisive groan. "Are you stupid! That's not the kind of thing you say to a girl!"

Pulling away from the pillow, she watched as Keith's eyes blinked, almost as if his mind was attempting to wrap what she said. "You didn't let me finish."

"So?" Two honey brown eyes continued to glare at the other paladin in his medical gown.

"I was saying, if you and he were to marry, then I'd end up with two more siblings."

"Wh…" The small paladin. "Are you trying to say you think of me as a sister?"

"Yes." Keith glanced down, his hands clutching the sheets again. "I was a little bit jealous at first when I thought you were a guy, and Shiro spent quite a bit of time with you. I kind of thought, you were stealing him away. But then, after the food fight, I kind of thought, it was rather nice having another sibling, one that I could look after for once. Although…"

"I take it that's your way of saying yes, you would tell me what you were feeling if you understood yourself."

"Yes." The red paladin reached up and tugged on her sleeve, his head turning away as if something were bothering him."

"Yeah?"

"First, there was an incident last night. Second, there is also something wrong with Shiro."

"Is this world's Shiro not acting the way he should, meaning it's not our Shiro."

"No." Keith's head turned back. "I mean, this world's Shiro is definitely not our Shiro, as he doesn't remember Voltron at all. I mean, there is something wrong with our Shiro." Pidge felt her small body tense up. "You remember how I said, it's nice having another sibling to look after?"

"Yeah. Not only did you say that a few minutes ago, I can also take care of myself."

"That's not what I mean by taking care of a younger sibling. I mean – it's complicated. I guess that's the difference, why with Shiro it feels bad, but with you, it doesn't."

Pidge felt her throat tighten even more. "Wait. If there was something wrong with Shiro, where he couldn't take care of himself, wouldn't we have all noticed."

She watched Keith's mouth twist in thought, as he carefully thought over her words, before turning back to her. "No. I don't think so. It's not exactly that kind of thing either. Most of the time he acts like himself, but sometimes, he doesn't. I guess this isn't something I know how to explain either, but I thought you would want to know."

The green paladin narrowed her eyes, a smile flitting across her face. "But the question is, does he want me to know?"

Keith looked her in the eye. "It's something he's hoping I hadn't noticed, but he's my older brother, so it's hard to notice."

Pidge held her hand to her mouth as if she were holding a microphone. "So, red paladin, is the black paladin as amazing as the blue paladin makes him out to be?"

She held her hand out, watching as the tension melted away from Keith's body. He folded his arms across his chest, looking up at the ceiling. "Is Shiro as amazing as Lance think's he is? Well, if you're talking piloting skills, martial arts, academia, yeah. However, he's just as much of an otaku as I am, but I guess that's also an amazing thing about him, even though others might not think that. Cosplay, manga, anime, you name it, he does it with me."

The green paladin stared. "Um…"

Keith's eyes blinked a couple of times. "Sorry. I forget that kind of behavior isn't considered to be socially acceptable, and he doesn't tend to do it unless it's…"

"Actually, I haven't a clue what you're talking about. Those words…" Pidge watched Keith open his mouth, and she realized he was about to blurt out what he meant. In fact, he was talking more than he ever had. "Hold on! I like the fact you're opening up to me, but I was hoping we might be able to play a game or something."

"Video game?" Keith's facial features indicated interest, and yet he was so off.

"Um, I don't do computer games really."

"No. Video… never mind." The fifteen-year-old folded his arms across his chest.

Pidge pulled out her computer. "How about chess? I've got an app for playing on my computer."

The red paladin let out a sigh. "I find chess boring." This made the green paladin's facial features sink, as her attempt to interact with Keith felt like it came to naught, not to mention the fact it felt like he just insulted her. "I actually prefer go and shogi."

"What?"

"They're both strategy games. In fact, Shiro told me that here Shoji is known as Japanese chess or general's chess."

"If I can get an app downloaded, would you teach me how to play?" Pidge watched a smile spread across Keith's face, making a smile spread across her face. "I'll take that as a yes." She began to search for an appropriate app. " _Not that I expect this game to be anything like chess, but I'll humor him._ "

A knock came at the door, and the two looked up to see a woman staring at them. "Excuse me?"


	19. He Is

The way he felt, perhaps someone might describe the feeling as that of fear, and yet Keith never felt fear actually explained away the anxiety he felt, particularly since any panic attack he had never occurred during a point of major stress, but always after, when his body simply decided to shut down on him, as did his brain. The only two people to ever figure this out where of course Shiro, but also the garrison psychologist. Sometimes he thought they knew something that they weren't telling him, but he'd never pushed the matter.

After the episode where the garrison medical staff came in to help him, Keith found himself resting on his side, attempting to let the anxiety pass, and yet many things rushed through his head, including the emotions he couldn't place, or the memories he for some reason knew were forgotten. " _I've drawn too much attention to myself, which is a hindrance to the team._ "

He hadn't seen Pidge enter the room, and startled when she tried to touch him. Thankfully, the green paladin asked before she sat down, otherwise, he didn't know how he would react. The touch at first sent shock waves through his body, but then he found it comforting. What happened after that, he honestly couldn't explain, other than knowing from Pidge's reaction of hitting him with the pillow that he'd somehow did something which was weird under normal social constructs. After that, though, he knew the two of them were bonding, which made him feel happy.

Until of course, Aleesha walked in, an orange uniform in her arms. "Excuse me?"

Pidge looked up, her eyes wide, while one hand reached up to adjust her headband, and the corners of her mouth twisted up in an attempt to deflect blame off of herself. "Um, hi."

"Keith, you're not supposed to have visitors right now."

The fifteen-year-old male took a deep breath. "Is this because of last night?"

"Well, you did have an anxiety attack last night."

Pidge turned her head to look at him, her eyes blinking shut as her mouth pushed together in frustration. They snapped open. "Keith?"

"I told you. I can't explain how I felt."

"But me coming to see you did make you feel better, right?" The green paladin pushed at her bottom lip as if she were trying to get at something.

"Yes."

The small teen turned to look at Aleesha. "See. Me being here is a good thing."

"Actually, Keith not having visitors has nothing to do what happened last night, though we will need to eventually talk about that." The part about talking about things made the red paladin let out an exasperated sigh, knowing full well that that really meant. The garrison psychiatrist walked over, setting down the clothes on the bed. "This should fit you."

"I get to go home?" Keith felt relief wash over him, glad that he would no longer have one of the garrison medical staff peeking into the room every few minutes to see if he were okay. His hands reached for the uniform, pulling it towards himself, before starting to change clothes. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Pidge reach for the pillow which was now on the floor, bashing him in the face again, making him let out another sound of surprise.

"Keith!"

The pillow fell away from his vision, his dark blue eyes staring at Pidge, noting the irritated look on her face, but not understanding why she was miffed at him this time. "What?"

"Were you really going to change in front of me?" Pidge folded her arms across her chest.

"Yes." This comment led to her using the pillow again from a different side, and Aleesha giving him a rather exasperated look, meaning something was going over his head.

"At least wait until I've turned around!"

"Why?" The pillow popped him again, this time on the top of his head. "What did I get wrong?"

Aleesha cleared her voice. "Keith, if I recollect you _hate_ changing in front of anybody, correct?"

Keith found himself staring at the older sister of the blue paladin, his mind still not following the logic. "That's not true. I'm fine in regards to changing in front of Shiro."

He watched Pidge's face twitch, the pillow dropping from her hand. The garrison psychiatrist let out a deep sigh. "Shiro is your sibling."

"Pidge is my sibling too." The red paladin watched the smaller paladin bury her face in her hands, and he poked her in the side, his mind not cluing into the fact she wore a dress. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Shiro is your biological sibling Keith. Big difference!"

"Oh." Keith's mind thought about what she said for a few minutes, and Aleesha began to relax. "Would that difference change if you married Shiro?" His eyes blinked a couple of times, watching as Pidge fell out of the bed onto the ground, while Lance's sister let out a choking sound. "What?"

Pidge stood up, carefully grabbing the red paladin's face and gently moving his face so that he looked her in the eye. "Keith?"

"Yes."

"I believe you forgot something very important. Something that should be very obvious."

"And that would be?"

"The fact I'm a girl. I mean, I'm wearing a dress for crying out loud."

Keith's eyes blinked a couple of times before he felt his cheeks heat up slightly, realization hitting him. "Oh. That would be a problem."

Pidge let out a sigh, before scooping her backpack up. "I'm going to go and wait outside with this lady here, and hopefully she'll not think you're a pervert and let me back in after your done changing, at least until you get to leave. Okay?"

"Yeah. Okay." For once, the door shut, and Keith looked down at the uniform, remembering how much he hated it. His fingers touched the cloth, remembering how he'd never liked the texture, but something was different. " _If it weren't for the garrison, I'd never have met Pidge, Hunk and Lance. I'd only know Shiro._ "

* * *


	20. Exasperating

The situation Aleesha found when she walked into the room the medical staff placed Keith Kagone in was honestly rather awkward from the start. Aleesha's blue eyes closed, reminding herself of the fact Takashi Shirogane's younger brother had a knack for _not_ understanding the social situations thrown at him, and the one in front of her seemed just like that.

If she ever found Lance in a room with a girl, with nobody else with him, Aleesha knew she'd be pulling him out by his ear, even if the door itself was open so that anyone passing by could see what was going on. However, the young man in front of her was Keith Kagone, someone quite oblivious to various implications, his mind still focused far more on the garrison's latest vehicle was, rather than girls.

" _Those two are miles apart. I can't imagine them ever being friends, so my request that Lance stays away from Cadet Kagone is merited, though I bet I'll receive an earful from that brother of mine later on._ " Something was familiar about the young lady in the room, something she couldn't quite place. The one thing Aleesha did place was the level of comfort Shiro's younger brother exerted towards the young female, but also how the fifteen-year-old had finally, after all, this time, managed to make a friend.

The elated feeling she felt cascaded when the young man still managed to elicit and inappropriate response, first starting to change in front of the two women, before declaring absolute confusion as to why he shouldn't be changing in front of a sibling, only for the young lady to remind him of what should have been obvious because of the dress his companion was wearing. She stepped out of the room and looked down at the young female, quite sure she recognized her from somewhere.

The girl looked up, rather irritated at the woman. "What?"

"Who are you exactly, and how did you get in here?"

"I'm Matt Holt disguised in a dress, can't you tell?"

Aleesha felt her jaw drop, wondering how the young lady could be so brash, but then remembered Samuel Holt had not one child, but two. "I take it you're Katie Holt. I thought you wore contacts? All of the pictures I've seen of you show you without glasses."

Katie's mouth moved around, while she tugged at her backpack straps. "Her decision."

"You mean your mother."

The girl's lip jutted out, and she looked away. "My turn, who are you?"

"You only answered one of my questions."

"No, I didn't. I answered both. I'm Matt Holt and I got in by disguising myself as a girl."

"Except that answer wasn't true."

"So? I'm not going to give away my secret. I might need it again." Katie folded her arms across her chest in a very unladylike manner. "Who are you?"

"I'm the garrison psychiatrist." Aleesha pushed up her glasses.

"So, you're the one who decides whether or not Keith is nutters or not?" The girl looked up at the adult.

"That's not a very nice thing to say about your friend."

"Except isn't he kind of worried about you deciding to keep him locked up?" Katie got directly to the point, her eyes narrowing as she continued to sulk. "If you even dare to change your mind, I am going to find a way to break him out of whatever loony bin you send him to, but also find a way to make your life a living hell."

"So, that has been on his mind then." Aleesha let out a deep breath, folding her arms across her chest, but standing up straight unlike the young woman standing next to her.

"I'm just glad he gets to go home, and things get to go back to normal for him."

"Just because I'm releasing him, doesn't mean things are going to go back to normal. I actually need to talk to him about that, so it might be best if you take your leave."

Katie's eyes narrowed, her hands darting behind her back. "What do you mean?" The girl pulled herself away, her mouth forming a pout. "Nope. I'm not leaving. Keith owes me lunch for making me worry about him like he did."

"Uh-huh." Before Aleesha could pry any further, the door cracked open, and Keith peeked out. The young female in the purple dress shoved by without asking whether the fifteen-year-old male teen was finished, and he opened the door even more. The garrison psychiatrist took a deep breath, realizing he was indeed not finished, with the majority of his clothes hanging over one arm, while he attempted to hold up his pants with the other.

The young female walked over to the bed and sat down on the end with her legs crossed while wearing a dress. Katie waved her hand, indicating he should come over. "Keith, come here." The fifteen-year-old complied, his mouth remaining twisted slightly as if something were bothering him. "Hand me those clothes."

She caught the clothes he lightly tossed at her, before making a circular motion with her hand, indicating he should turn around. She grabbed the back of his uniform pants, allowing Keith to finally latch the front without irritating his wrists too much by twisting his hands to grasp the waistband as well as the button and zipper. Katie then let go, handing him the black undershirt the cadets and officers both wore, which he pulled over his head, while her hands helped tug on the cloth of the shirt to help him get it straightened out.

The jacket was a harder task, where Katie had to hold the jacket for him, so he could put his arms into the sleeve without aggravating the injuries on his wrists before the teen started to zip up the jacket. He looked up at her, a rather hopeful look in his eyes. "So, does this mean that I can go home now?"

Aleesha took a deep breath. "There is something I need to talk to you about in regards to that."

Keith looked at her, his eyes blinking a few times, and his mouth opening up to say something, only to stop short when one of the male nurses paused in the doorway. "Mam. Cadet Kagone's family member is here to take him home."

The garrison psychiatrist watch as Keith's dark blue eyes widened, his hand absentmindedly pulling at the hem of his other sleeve, attempting to cover his bandaged wrists despite the fact the sleeves of the uniform covered the bandages up even without this action. His tone of voice tightened, " _What?_ Wait. Shiro's stuck on Mars, so who…" The color quickly drained from the teen's face. "No. Not them."


	21. Aggravation

The book snapped shut as the young man let out a deep yawn, his fingers snapping up the photo to place it firmly within the book, his eyes narrowing in irritation at his older brother. Shinji simply smiled at him, and yet still gave Ryo no more information than he already had. The book slipped into the bag before he stood up to follow after the other member of the Shirogane family. When they got off the aircraft Shinji flew from one garrison to another, Ryo's dark eyes drifted over to the few cadets – likely of the engineering department – as they stared down.

"So…"

"So what?"

"You seriously aren't going to let me go about my mission with such little details are you?" Ryo let one eyebrow drift up, while his arms crossed his chest.

"I'm going to be teaching here, while you are going to be finishing your education here with Akira, but in the meantime we're to also take care of our other duties, yours being to keep an eye on your cousin. It's as simple as that, though you will be after morning classes during the lunch break going and retrieving Akira from the infirmary, before making sure he gets home."

Ryo felt his mouth twist in irritation. "Wait. Are you telling me that I will be missing school because of him?"

"It's not as if it is going to be counted as an absence."

"You're missing the point."

"It's your mission." The tone of voice from Shinji told the younger sibling that nothing more was to be said about the situation. Despite this, the look in his older brother's eyes, the way Shinji twisted his mouth said a lot of not messing things up. He found himself waiting outside of the morning class, his new schedule in his hand while some of the garrison cadets passed by despite the fact they should have already been in class.

Upon getting into class, he saw a rather diverse class compared to the garrison in Japan, but also blatant insubordination. One young man glared at him, his arms crossed, his desk skewed as if he'd slammed into it, reminding Ryo of one of his classmates back at the garrison who was constantly competing with him and another for the top three spots, the top always going to himself, but the other two shifting constantly.

Another young man, however, seemed rather nonchalant about the whole scenario, his feet up on the desk. The decorum and non-military attitude made Ryo grind his teeth, but he refrained from making some kind of snarky comment. Somehow he also got through the classes despite the lack of enthusiasm from the Hispanic looking student and the other young man who seemed to glare daggers at him.

He, of course, didn't know where the infirmary was and decided to ask his classmates, no one in particular, not paying the looks allocated towards his katana any mind. The young man who glared at him made a snarky remark, and yet he kept his cool despite the fact he wanted to break from the military rigor that the Shirogane family drilled into him.

A rather large cadet told him how to get to the infirmary, and he walked straight up to the nurse's office. The eyes of the nurse at the front blinked a couple of times, her eyes drifting down to his katana. "Are you feeling well."

"I'm fine. I'm actually here to see Kagone Akira." Ryo watched the woman's eyes blink a couple of times, before remembering what his brother said about the order of introduction. "Akira Kagone?"

"You mean Cadet Kagone?" The nurse frowned. "He's not supposed to have any visitors."

"I'm his cousin. I'm supposed to be picking him up." He watched the young woman's eyes blinked a couple of times. "Oh! I'll let them known."

His finger grabbed onto the strap of the bag, irritated that Akira somehow managed to make him go through all of this trouble, letting out a deep breath of frustration as he waited for his cousin. Frustration grew, wondering what kind of trouble the other fifteen-year-old got into, before glancing up in time to see his young cousin walking rather slowly towards him, his facial features twisted up as if he were not happy with the fact Ryo was there. " _Not that I don't share that feeling._ "

Ryo's mouth pressed together watching a young female in a purple dress walking next to Akira, and Ryo took a deep breath, wondering who the strange girl was. The Hispanic woman who came with them reached out her hand to shake his hand, telling him she was the garrison psychiatrist. Ryo didn't think much about this, as the nurse handed Akira medication and instructions, making the older fifteen-year-old grind his teeth again, but finding himself struggling to place the feeling.

" _Are you ready to go._ "

"No."

His teeth ground, even more, catching sight of that usual stubborn look on Akira's face. The girl pulled on her backpack. "Translation, please. I do not speak Japanese."

"He asked if I was ready to go, but I _don't_ want to go with him."

The garrison psychiatrist let out a sigh. "Would you rather you stay here in the infirmary another night, or even until your older brother gets back."

The red haired girl's mouth twisted up, frustrated. "Keith, I want to eat lunch, so I _am_ ready to go. Who is this family member of yours."

"My cousin." Keith folded his arms across his chest, and glared at Ryo, his tone of voice almost saying, " _my dumb cousin_."

" _You…_ " Ryo felt his fist clench, but let his teeth grind together in frustration. " _Never mind, I am not going to go there._ " He reached out to grab Keith's arm, only to have him pull away. " _Really?_ "

"Really. I don't want to go with you."

" _And you're not leaving unless you do._ " Ryo folded his own arms, his eyes narrowing at his cousin, wondering how Keith could be so stubborn.

"I accept that. However, I _don't_ want you touching me."

" _Fine, let's go._ " The older of the fifteen-year-old males watched as Keith walked past him.

The girl followed after him. "Good. I'm hungry for lunch. What are we eating?"

"Wait." Ryo grabbed the back of the girl's dress. "I didn't say your girlfriend could come with you."

He watched as the girl turned to look at him, as did Keith. The girls honey brown eyes were narrowed, her lip twisting up in irritation. Keith, on the other hand, acted like he'd done something rather dumb. This became quite clear when the girl kicked him in the knee, twisting around on him rather unexpectedly, but also biting down on his hand, reminding him of a monkey. "Yeah, she's not my girlfriend. She's Shiro's. I think."

The stupidity of his cousin made Ryo want to die many times over inside.


	22. Unexpected Turns

His wrists hurt. Cutting himself in an attempt to wake up from the false reality ended up being one of the worst things he could ever have done, as now Keith found his mobility cut down, and finally he decided that asking for help was honestly the ideal course of action to take in regards to getting dressed, even though he wasn't exactly comfortable with doing so. Getting Pidge to help though meant getting to go home sooner, and that in itself made relief wash over him, at least until the one male nurse came in.

"Mam. Cadet Kagone's family member is here to take him home."

" _What?_ " Keith felt a panic wash over him as well as confusion. "Wait. Shiro's stuck on Mars, so who…" The only other family the red paladin had was _them_ , the rest of the Shirogane family, who always saw him as – the fifteen-year-old honestly had no words for what his family thought of him. "No. Not them."

He felt his heart sink, his hands falling to his side. Pidge watched him carefully, not sure if she should try to comfort him, and if she should, she didn't know how. The garrison psychiatrist spoke up. "Keith, I'm so sorry."

The teen felt his dark-blue eyes blink, as he sucked the air in, trying not to react negatively and lash out despite everything in the core of his being screamed for him to do so. "I know. You're only following orders. That's how things typically are, aren't they?" The red paladin lowered his eyes to the ground, his mouth pushing together as his hands clenched and unclenched. "Actually, they're likely here on orders as well."

Rather reluctantly he walked over to the side of the bed and handed Pidge the container her mother brought with her the day before, and she shoved it into her backpack without much thought of how it went in. She stared at her open backpack while Keith stared at the wall. "So…" After a moment of silent, while Aleesha waited, she turned her head. "You don't like your family?"

"I don't know." Keith thought about tucking his hands under his arms, but then thought better of it, what with his wrists the way they were. "I guess you could say the only one who ever really gave me the chance, off the top of my head, was Shiro. It's kind of hard to not like someone you know doesn't like you." He turned his head to watch Pidge's mouth twist about. "What?"

"No. I'll just need to try and keep that in mind for later." She slid off the bed. "Are you sure there isn't anyone? I mean, if you had to pick one person other than Shiro, who would it be?"

The red paladin closed his eyes, his mouth twisting into a frown. "Not really."

"Well, whoever it is, they're waiting for you."

Keith turned, his bottom lip jutting out as he glared at Aleesha. "You know, why do I have the idea that you _know_ who it is?"

"Guess what." Pidge piped up, pushing him towards the door, startling him in a manner that caused him to nearly fall over on her. "I'm coming with you, so you don't have to deal with your inane family on your own. Okay."

"Pidge!"

"No buts! You still owe me lunch!"

"I never agreed to that." Keith felt a level of irritation at her.

"Well, you certainly made me worried sick about you, what with you doing what you did to yourself! Stupid!" Glancing over his shoulder, the red paladin could see her mouth twisted into a pout, but also how frustrated she seemed. "And you deserve to be called stupid for that, because what you did was stupid, and you know better!"

"Okay…" He let out a sigh, starting to walk on his own, slowing down upon recognizing the familiar site, although he couldn't outright remember the last time he'd seen Shiro. " _Oh yeah. The last time I saw him, he was bragging about getting the tattoo for the Shirogane family on his sixteenth birthday, and how I didn't have one. Not that I wanted one, except for maybe the fact Shiro has one._ "

Ryo was honestly the last person from the family he wanted to see, who, unlike Lance, was his real rival, always belittling him, and finding ways to rub in his status as being a Kogane and not a Shirogane. It never helped that Ryo's mother was a Kogane, and so Keith found himself hit with a double whammy. Ryo was his cousin through his father – supposed father, but also his cousin through his adoptive father, thus he found himself interacting with the other teen a lot. He also felt like he'd forgotten something important.

The one good thing was that Pidge kicked Ryo hard, however, he found himself punished by her little claw like hands as she stood on a chair, nearly nose to nose with him. "Keith."

"Yes."

"Repeat after me. I am not Shiro's girlfriend."

"I am not Shiro's girlfriend." Keith watched Ryo slap his forehead, before the other male teen reached out to grab his arm, making the red paladin flinch, only for his cousin's grip to tighten when he tried pulling away. Pidge's mouth twitched slightly in response. "You were supposed to say that I, Pidge, am not Shiro's girlfriend!"

"You are such an embarrassment."

The words hit deep, making his entire body run cold, his head sinking, his body going slightly limp as the green paladin attempted to keep up. Aleesha said something and seemed to be fine with the three leaving, yet her eyes had a bit of worry that Keith couldn't see. They'd not gotten far, when a familiar voice jarred Keith out of his stupor.

"Oh no, you don't!"

Keith's eyes opened and shut, before looking out of the corner of his eye at the blue paladin. Ryo's grip tightened, making the red paladin let out a hissing sound. "What do you want!"

"No way am I going to let you kidnap Keith!"

"Who?" The comment from his cousin made his eye twitch, and yet he saw now the look of determination on Lance's face as the young Hispanic pointed at Ryo, and yet showed a great deal of fear at what the other boy could do.

"The person you're trying to kidnap of course! Keith! Come on! Speak up for yourself!"

" _Speak up for myself?_ " The red paladin felt his head lower to the ground, the words sounding so far away, and not something he'd ever done.

"I'm not kidnapping anybody." Ryo surged forward, pulling Keith painfully behind him, moving faster than either Lance and Hunk expected, while Pidge was nowhere in site.

"Oh no, you don't! Hunk!"

"Gotcha!" The next thing Keith knew, Hunk moved with speed nobody would expect for his big size. The yellow paladin quickly grabbed him under his arms, yanking the smaller paladin out of Ryo's grip, and up onto his shoulder. The position was uncomfortable, unexpected, and yet a strange feeling washed over him that the red paladin could not for the life of him explain. He pushed himself up in time to see Lance step between Hunk and Ryo, holding out his arms wide in a defensive manner.

Ryo, of course, reacted, pulling out his katana and pointing it right at Lance, that killing look on his face as he did so, but the blue paladin stood his ground. "Nope! I'm not going to let you take Keith!"

"Wait…" Keith began to wiggle. "Hunk, put me down before Lance gets hurt."

"But…"

"Just do it."

"Okay, but I don't trust this guy." Hunk set him down in time for Pidge to come around the corner, her cheeks puffing out while her eyes narrowed at Ryo.

The red paladin held up both hands. "Ryo, can you put your katana away."

"Why should I?"

"Because I'll go with you with no objections, outside of the fact we're going at Pidge's pace so she can keep up."

"You're going to be compliant."

"Yes." Keith watched Lance look at him, completely baffled, almost as if he felt betrayed.

Ryo sheathed the blade, and began to walk away, while the red paladin started after, only for someone to grab onto his wrist, making him hiss out in pain. Keith quickly realized that Lance had reached out, questioning his actions, but also that Ryo had overhead the gasp. He quickly stepped in between, doing the exact same thing Lance did for him, except no fear showed on his face.

"Akira, move!"

"No."

"Akira!"

"Hunk! Do what you do best!" Keith hoped the yellow paladin would get his message, and heard his fellow companions muffled surprise before he heard Lance begin to protest at the bigger paladin scooping him up and running in the opposite direction. Pidge walked forward, a rather annoyed look on her face, her hand reaching up to push the blade away.

"Look, I know you may mean well, but you can't go shish kabobbing the other cadets." Her mouth twisted up. "Also, I _know_ Shiro, and I'll tell you."

Keith watched Ryo's eye twitch. "Are you okay?"

The red paladin felt his eyes blink, surprised at what his cousin said. "What?"

"Never mind." Ryo sheathed his sword again, spinning on his heels. "Let's go. Your pet there wants to be fed."

"Hey!" Pidge glared after the other teen. Keith suddenly felt tired, the entire situation draining him emotionally.


	23. Green Hornet

The green paladin's stomach grumbled, yet not in a manner that the others could hear. She'd seen the look on Keith's face upon seeing his cousin and knew full well seeing this person majorly upset the red paladin. Pidge also watched him stumble over his interaction, missing key points only to aggravate his cousin. Ryo also acted in a curt manner which differed from Keith's own curtness, and Shiro's rather sociable disposition, but which also bothered the young female.

She hadn't though expected Lance or Hunk to show up and missed part of the conversation due to Ryo dragging Keith away at a pace which outstripped her own. She did, however, see Hunk holding onto the red paladin, hoisting him over his shoulder, while Lance attempted to stand between Ryo and Keith, which in turn did surprise her due to the blue paladin's typical reaction to their fellow paladin.

She then watched as Keith started acting like a leader with ease, first by giving an order to Hunk in a firm, but respectful manner before moving between Ryo and his fellow paladins. Pidge remembered how despairing he was of himself when she got the rude shock when she walked in on him and his wrists bandaged, and how unsure he always acted previously.

The person in front of her, however, seemed quite sure of himself, almost like a different person, handling the situation well. In Pidge's mind clicked, realizing there was more to Shiro picking Keith as their new leader than just _being_ the younger sibling, and she wondered if perhaps the red paladin's leaderships might rival that of his older brother, something that proved somewhat of a shock.

In fact, Pidge realized then that she was seeing two Alpha personalities clashing with each other, fighting for dominance, neither one wanting to back down. Thus, she stepped in, pushing the blade away despite the fact she wasn't sure what Ryo would do, as she didn't know him like she did Keith. The stubbornness remained despite this, until the other male teen put away his katana, his mouth muttering out something that sounded like sincere concern.

This made Keith's stubbornness melt away to a look of confusion, and Pidge watched the self-doubt come rushing back. She also heard Ryo's cruel retort back at her but quickly noticed the apologetic look on the red paladin's face. The look he gave her also said he didn't want to talk about it. Pidge let out a sigh, before walking beside Keith at a pace which was suitable for her. Every so often Ryo would glance back, realizing the two had fallen behind, and she saw how clearly annoyed the third wheel seemed in regards to her presence.

" _They're kind of like rivals, except…_ " Pidge's eyes blinked a couple of times, remembering the many times when Lance told Keith he was his rival. "Oh. No wonder that didn't go over well."

"What didn't?" Keith's voice drew her away, while Ryo looked back at her, the look on his face indicating he was annoyed that she dared to speak.

"Oh. Nothing. If I remember, I'll explain later." The green paladin pushed her lips together, remembering Keith's negative reactions towards his cousin, but also how quickly the red paladin fell back into self-deprecation. " _Rivalry to Keith isn't a good thing. I guess I could try to explain that to Lance, but I'm not sure if he'd get that._ "

The three arrived at the front, with Keith holding onto the bag of medicine. Surprisingly enough, the blue and yellow didn't seem to react to the items in the red paladin's hand, almost as if they knew something was off. Of course, the situation with Ryo may have curtailed any comments on Keith's condition, or the two other paladins decided something else had more priority.

A few of the other cadets stared, and Pidge watched Keith divert eye contact, but also how Ryo ignored the looks sent his way. They arrived out at the bus stop and got on the bus while more people stared. The red paladin remained silent, shrunken into himself as he tried to block out the crowds around him. Pidge seemed far more at ease with the situation, or perhaps he was attempting to not notice the two.

It was then that the white ghost like creature floated up the stairs of the bus, without anyone on the bus noticing the existence of said creature. The alien creature floated past Ryo, just as the young man flinched at seeing the creature, before the creature floated up onto Keith's head, resting gently before letting out a small yawn. The red paladin didn't react to the small creature landing on his head, and instead acted as if this were normal.

The cousin of the red paladin seemed unsettled with the alien creature's presence, but said nothing and instead snapped his head back around. Pidge felt her mouth curl up, before leaning towards Keith. "He saw."

"Saw…" The red paladin's dark eyes looked down at her in confusion, his voice soft as he pulled out of his daze.

Her eyes darted up, and his mouth opened up, almost as if he hadn't noticed the creature, but then shrugged his shoulders. "So, where are we going for lunch?"

"Home." Keith piped up. "Except it's not home. Not like the Castle of Lions."

"What…" Ryo's eye twitched suddenly.

"You know…"

"He doesn't." Pidge pushed her lips together in amusement. "At least we're not eating food goo, right."

"Yeah. No food goo."

The cousin of the red paladin's eye twitched. "What are you two talking about?"

Both of the paladins stared at him. Keith had no response, but Pidge became snarky in her response. "Wouldn't you like to know."

Ryo took a deep breath, attempting to hold his breath as he narrowed his eyes at the two, yet said nothing more regarding the subject. His eyes instead drifted to the strange ghost like creature which rested on Keith's head. They found themselves glad when the bus finally pulled to a stop. Pidge stretched as she got off in a very unladylike manner, which the red paladin paid no mind to, but his cousin glared at her in irritation.

Keith headed to the door, pulling the keys out of his pocket, while Pidge took on the outside of the house Keith and Shiro lived in, noting how different the place looked in comparison to the small shack. In the back of her mind, she noted the fact she would need to ask Keith about the place in the desert at a later time. The red paladin paused, almost as if he were thinking about something, before unlocking the door.

The three stepped in, and Pidge noted on the walls pictures of Shiro and Keith. Her breath drew in realizing the pictures showed something she'd not seen at all from her fellow paladin, a genuine smile. Sure, Keith's mouth would twist up every so often at the corner, but he never seemed really happy, yet in these pictures his smile was wide, almost laughing. Pidge found herself taking in a deep breath, realizing that when Keith smiled, one could actually tell he and Shiro were related.

Her eyes darted away, noticing that Keith looked back at her, before dumping his bag of medicine on the couch in the small living room area. Pidge made to go and sit down, only to have her eyes drawn to the kitchen. Her throat tightened, noticing the mess which remained from the night the red paladin hurt himself. She closed her eyes, trying to forget how brash their current leader could be, but also felt a bit ill when she wondered if Keith even noticed the mess.


	24. More Annoyances

Akira, in his opinion, was the most aggravating person in the world, or at least that was what Ryo thought until he met the girl his cousin referred to as Pidge. She, with her unladylike mannerisms, seemed like a packaged deal with the two idiots attempting to rescue Akira from the supposed kidnapping attempt. Thinking about it, seeing his cousin interact with people in itself seemed a tad odd, as Ryo never remembered the other teen to be very sociable.

In fact, if Ryo were to put his finger on it, Akira wasn't acting like his normal self, almost a tad nervous in regards to his movements. The young man found himself taking a deep breath, wondering what it was that bothered his family member, and yet worrying about Akira seemed as foreign as the mission he was given. Said mission led to him drawing his blade on the strange Hispanic kid, only for Akira to intervene.

Akira _never_ was the type of person Ryo expected to fit into a leadership position.

Yet there he was, giving orders, promising to _behave_ of all things, making it so that the situation calmed, at least until the young Shirogane's reacted to the sound of pain slipping from Akira's mouth. Rage welled through his body, wondering exactly who the Hispanic kid _was_ , only for Akira to step in between, making the adrenaline rage even more. Again, his cousin's leadership skills kicked in, the order to the big guy becoming all too clear.

Ryo wanted to say something, and from his mouth slipped the words, "Are you okay?"

Worrying about Akira, that was as foreign of a feeling as one could get, what with the fact all members of the Shirogane family could easily take care of themselves. Something though felt off, and the strong personality Akira exerted made him back down, and yet only added to the worry as it melted away. His cousin became to compliant, too willing to listen.

The girl also watched him like a hawk, intervening like she did. The conversation regarding castles of lions and food goo proved irritating but made him wonder what kind of childish things Akira had been up to of late, knowing full well his cousin's penchant for – for the life of him. Ryo couldn't remember the shows despite remembering all to clearly the few times the younger cousin by one month had attempted to talk his ear off.

A certain someone had quickly learned how disinterested Ryo was in him, but also how much Ryo looked down on Akira's childlike personality, but also his inability to remain focus, or the way his cousin somehow managed to hone in on something in particular, before hurrying off without regards to any of the dangers around him. His dislike of Akira also proved a sore spot with both Shinji and Takashi, but he brushed this fact aside, thinking this to be a minor issue.

They arrived at the house, and Ryo watched as Akira tossed the medicine onto the sofa, as if he didn't care. The girl seemed rather ambivalent as well until her eyes fixated on something in the kitchen. Unlike his cousin, he did pay attention to his surroundings and felt his breath draw in. "What the…" He walked in, looking at the mess on the floor, and the counter as well. "What happened here?"

"They didn't tell you?"

Ryo didn't like the way Akira's voice wavered, and turned his head, realizing that for once he had the others attention. The boy's eyes blinked a couple of times, swallowing as he took in the mess. The color drained from his cousin's already pale facial features, and he looked nervously away, almost as if he didn't want to talk about the subject. The only positive side was, out of the corner of his eye, Ryo could see his cousin's behavior made this Pidge girl a tad uncomfortable as well. "No. They didn't tell me."

"Then I don't see why I should tell you."

"Typical." The young member of the Shirogane family watched as Akira drew his breath in, his movements flinching at this word. Ryo took a deep breath. "So, where are the cleaners?"

"The…" Akira's eyes blinked a couple of times.

"You know, bleach, and stuff. We need to kind of use that to clean things up, Keith."

Ryo ground his teeth together. "His name's Akira, not Keith." Again, another flinch from Akira, before the teen looked over at the mess, looking as if he was becoming physically ill. The other teen bolted, heading to the nearby bathroom, and closing the door behind him. Ryo swallowed in irritation, before going to knock on the door. "Hey!" Reaching down, he found the doorknob turning, and he opened the door. A feeling of coldness ran down his spine, seeing Akira sitting in the laundry room attached to the bathroom with his head buried in his arms. "Why are you always like this? I mean, why are you such a pain Akira?"

Ryo felt a tug on his uniform and turned to look at Pidge. "I'll help you look."

His teeth ground together before he poked Pidge in the forehead. "Don't but into private matters kid."

"Kid?" The girl crossed her arms, a scowl spreading across her face. "I'm fifteen you know."

"What?"

"I know I'm small for my age, but I really am fourteen."

Ryo took a deep breath. "Look, I don't need you trying around. I mean, that's the real reason you're wanting to help me, so you can go exploring. Stay put."

"Or what?"

"I'll drag your scrawny ass out that front door, locking it behind you." The threat worked, and Ryo started to look around, first in the bathroom, and then the kitchen, before heading back to the bedrooms. He didn't find any cleaning materials but did, in fact, find action figures and manga in Akira's room, irritating him even more. There were likely more of these things, but he pushed it aside, realizing Akira was out of his line of sight, but the Pidge person hadn't moved, only to still glare at him.

He walked over to the center counter, reaching into his pocket for his phone, preparing to dial Shinji when Akira came out of the laundry room. Ryo stopped short, watching his cousin pull out a footstool, before climbing up to reach something from on top of the refrigerator. The box dropped onto the counter, making Ryo blink a couple of times before his cousin spoke up. "How much do you need?"

"What?"

"Cleaning supplies?"

"How should I know?" Ryo took a deep breath. "Why don't you guys have any bleach?"

"I can't think of a reason why we've needed it before this."

The older of the three teens shook his head, his fingers tapping while his eyes closed. Pidge spoke up. "Are we going to eat before we go and get cleaning supplies, or after?"

"Now?" Akira piped up, making Ryo's eyes snap open.

"Are you kidding me?" The eldest teen ground his teeth together. "What about that mess?" He watched Akira's eyes wander, looking down at the blood stained floor, but also how the site bothered his cousin. "Don't worry. I'll clean it up."

"No. I should…"

"No. I want you to stay out of my way. Go off and play your little kids games, just stay out of the way. I'll make lunch as well. What do you have in the house?"

"Ramen."

Ryo felt everything sink. "Wait…"

"Ramen. Cereal. Chips. Oh, and soda."

Something made him glad that Pidge's eyes widened in shock at Keith's response, but he still pinched his nose in frustration.


	25. Helping Hand

" _All I wanted to do was help Keith out._ "

The cogs in Lance's head were honestly not working right, but they honestly sufficed, given the fact he did at least figure out what he felt was the most important part, that he'd actually wanted to help Keith out. Despite the fact the red paladin tended to rub him the wrong way, he couldn't not in anyway deny the fact Keith was his friend.

He also knew that Ryo rubbed him the wrong way, and was now enemy number one, outside of the Galra of course. He also had to admit that the younger Shirogane scared the crap out of him, but he stood up for Keith despite the fear coursing through his body. He wasn't expecting what the red paladin did next, or for Hunk to follow through with the order.

"Put me down Hunk."

"Um, no."

"Hunk!" The two passed by a group of girls, and Lance made a waving motion at the three, causing the female cadets to giggle.

The yellow paladin set him down, his chubby features twisted in worry. "Lance…"

"Why did you stop me?"

"Because that Shirogane kid was seriously going to kill you?"

"And what do you think he was going to do to Keith? Huh?"

"I don't know."

"Then why did you abandon your friend Hunk."

"Oh…" The yellow paladin's tone of voice strained. "Don't you go there Lance. See, I may get scared, and run away and all, but the one thing I don't do is abandon my friends. I didn't want to take off any more than you did, but you know what? I think Keith can handle that guy a whole lot better than you can, what with the fact he's trained with swords and all."

Lance folded his arms across his chest. "That guy kidnapped Keith."

"You know, I don't think that's what was going on."

"Come on! It was obvious that Keith didn't want to go with the guy!"

"That's not kidnapping though. I mean, I don't think it is."

Lance plopped down onto the floor just as the bell rang. "Well, what are we supposed to do now. I don't think Keith and that jerk were going to class." His eyes widened. "Say! You don't think he was trying to call Keith out, do you?"

"Call him out?" Hunk's eyes blinked a bit, before his mouth formed a circle. "Oh. Um, maybe. But if it is, it's not that bullying kind of thing, but the warrior's kind of thing."

"No." The blue paladin felt his mouth twist, before flopping onto the ground. "Quiznack." Hunk slid down beside him, a worried look on his face. Five to ten minutes passed by, when a voice made the two jump.

"What do you cadets think you're doing?" The two paladins looked up to see the new teacher, also a Shirogane standing there in front of them. "Class started five, ten minutes ago."

Lance and Hunk looked at each other, their eyes widening. The yellow paladin spoke fast. "Say, you don't think he can help us. He's also a Shirogane, so…"

"Yeah. He should be able to help."

The two paladin's stood up, just as the teacher named Shirogane let one eyebrow drift up, yet the serious look on his face remained. "Help you with what?"

"See…" Lance's hands flared out. "You know that new kid. The one who has the same name as you."

The young man's expression darkened. "If this is about what our relationship to Takashi Shirogane is, that is really none of your business."

The blue paladin held up a finger, his mouth agape. His hands swung out with enthusiasum with a motion indicating no. "Nope. Nada. Well, I have been wondering that, but…"

"It's got to do with Keith." Hunk blurted out, only to find the teacher's face going blank. His voice slowed. "Um. That new kid. I think he called Keith, like, Akira?"

The teacher's eyes widened, before letting out a sigh of exasperation. "Oh. What did those two do this time?"

"That new kid…" Lance felt something click in his head, but not into place. "Wait. What did you say? That new kid wasn't trying to kidnap Keith."

Hunk's voice drew the blue paladin's eyes away, so he didn't catch the look on their teacher's face now matching the earlier sigh. "I told you that might not be it."

"Yeah. But that new kid drew his sword on us."

"What?" The teacher spoke up, but his words fell on deaf ears.

"Yeah. You also kind of had that coming Lance."

"Did not." Lance folded his arms across his chest. "And besides, you're the one who took off with me, so we couldn't stop that other kid from…" Two bright blue eyes blinked. "To be honest, I'm not sure what was going on, but it didn't seem good."

"I only ran because Keith told me to. You were trying to get that guy to turn you into mincemeat, which was rather scary."

"Stop!" This comment from the teacher made the two paladins. "Look. I'm sorry Ryo went overboard. I'll have a word with him to make sure it doesn't happen again. As for Akira, he's fine."

"Yeah, but…"

The sound of a phone went off, and the teacher picked it up, holding up one finger. "Hello. … Calm down Ryo. … What do you mean it didn't get cleaned up? … Look, I'll be sure to send someone over from the garrison to take care of it. Have you two eaten lunch… … Three? … Um, well, I don't know who the girl is either."

"It's Pidge." Lance piped up, causing Hunk to shush him rather loudly.

The teacher named Shirogane continued to look rather annoyed, and held up his own finger to his mouth. "He what? … I get the fact you don't like the food choices, but… Ryo!" The young man took a deep breath. "Thank you for calming down. I get the fact you don't like the food choices. I don't either, and will have a talk to him about eating properly _later_. It's not as if you guys can cook anything until the kitchen is sanitized, so why don't you two – three – go over to that Japanese restraunt Shiro told me about. Akira should know the place."

Lance folded his arms across his chest, thinking a few things were far more important.

The teacher looked up. "Oh, and no more pulling your sword on cadets. Your blade is a tool, not…" The young man let out a sigh, and closed his eyes. "Sorry. He hung up on me, but I will be sure to talk to him later about that." There came a pause. "Wait. Ryo didn't think you were trying to harm Akira, did he?"

"Um. Like he completely spazed for no reason!" Lance gestured wildling.

Hunk, however, attempted to pull the blue paladin away, hoping the young man would forget the fact they were missing class. "Well, Lance did do somethings that might have been misconstrued that way, but that Ryo dude really did kind of jump th gun, you know."

"Uh huh." The next thing the two paladin's knew, the teacher was holding onto their ears. "Don't think for a second I forgot about you guys being truant from class."

"Oh man! Lance. Why do you always get us into trouble like this? I hate going to the principles office. You know that!"


	26. Anxiety

His mind felt numb, yet he couldn't place the reason why beyond the fact, he knew his mind was going into overload. The red paladin didn't notice the floating ghost creature, let alone the fact the ghost landed on his head. His dark blue eyes didn't notice how Ryo watched the creature, or that Pidge noticed this. He did register somehow the conversation and felt relief when he got home despite the fact there were two others in the room with him.

Keith's eyes thus drifted past the kitchen, into the living room where he dumped his medicine onto the couch, his mind expecting Shiro's voice to come out of nowhere telling him to properly take care of his things. Instead, Ryo's voice pulled his attention to the kitchen, and the bloody mess, only for his stomach to lurch, his mind washing over with memories of the emotions he felt that night. The ghost drifted away, unnoticed by anyone.

He heard what Ryo and Pidge said, and yet Keith felt distant. He took a deep breath, attempting to ease the anxiety pounding at the back of his skull, wishing he had the entire Castle of Lions to disappear into the depths of, but instead his options were limited to the small house he and Shiro shared. Ryo blocked his path out of the house, and Pidge blocked the path to the hallway which led to some of the other rooms, meaning the only quiet place he could retreat to was the laundry room part of the bathroom.

He sunk down, attempting to block out everything so he could think the situation over. When he finally calmed down, he retrieved the box containing the cash Shiro arranged for him to receive weekly for living expenses. He'd always felt the allowance Shiro left him was too much, only to remember how the saved up money actually came in handy when he took off to the secret place he and Shiro sometimes went when the two brothers wanted to get away from things.

"Are you fucking stupid?"

Keith's eyes closed shut at Ryo's reaction to his choices in food purchases the last few months or so. The feeling fluttering around in his head reminded him exactly what the reason for his emotional distress was before. Ryo said something nice, which was out of character for his cousin, and yet now, maybe thankfully, Ryo was acting like himself. The red paladin also knew this feeling didn't make him feel any better.

Ryo shook his head, before dialing the keypad of his phone, his exasperation finally having gotten the better of him. The older teen held the phone to his ear, his lips pushed together in frustration. "It's me Shinji"

Keith drew in a deep breath, glad at least that Ryo was speaking English, but then the person on the other side must have been as well. " _Shinji_. _Ryo's older brother, a lot like Shiro, and not very memorable. I think._ "

"Don't tell me to calm down! The place isn't cleaned up from whatever happened, and Akira certainly isn't telling me what happened!"

The red paladin looked over at Pidge, who shrugged her shoulders in response, indicating she felt he was overreacting as well, yet Keith wasn't sure and leaned over. "I thought the plan was to clean it up?"

"I know. I don't know…"

A glare from Ryo shut the green paladin up, and she stepped slightly behind Keith, her eyes narrowing with dislike. Ryo continued to speak to Shinji, his tone remaining irate. "You mean three, and no, we haven't eaten lunch. … So you don't know who the girl is?"

Keith watched the tension between the two grow, which only resulted in his own shoulders to tense up. His eyes narrowed, wanting to say something, but a thought flickered through his mind. " _I am in no way the leader Shiro is. This is so out of my league._ "

"What are we doing for dinner?" Pidge spoke up from behind the red paladin, her tone of voice indicating the fact she found Ryo rather annoying.

"How should I know!" Ryo opened and shut a few cupboards, noting that indeed Keith had chosen to stock up on the items he mentioned. "By the way, Shinji, Akira's shopping skills in regards to groceries leave a lot to be desired! Ramen, cereal, and soda? Oh, and chips!" Something said on the other side made Ryo visibly flinch, and Keith tilted his head, curiosity spreading across his features. His tone of voice lowered, his eyes drifting to the ground. "Sorry…"

Ryo listened, before snapping the phone shut, turning to look at Keith and Pidge. "So… there is supposed to be a Japanese restaurant near here."

Keith's eyes widened. "Oh? That place. The couple who runs the place is really nice. We're not eating here? We have plenty to eat."

Pidge let out a deep sigh, heading over to the counter and grabbing some of the money. "I certainly don't want to eat ramen. I'm surprised you're fine with that."

The red paladin's eyes blinked a couple of times. "It's filling, and I can cook it. Ramen that is."

"Please don't tell me that's the only thing you know how to cook." The look on Pidge's face proved rather despairing, making Keith look away, not wanting to give her an answer.

Ryo crossed his arms. "Nobody is cooking in the kitchen until the place is cleaned and sanitized." The red and green paladin's turned to look at him, their eyes blinking a couple of times, resulting in Ryo's eyes widening. "Please tell me both of you actually thought of that?"

The youngest paladin looked away rather sheepishly. "Of course I did. I mean, that's kind of a given."

"It is?" Keith's eyes widened. "Why?"

Ryo stepped forward, grabbing the front of the red paladin's garrison uniform. "Why? You've got to be kidding me! Are you that much of a moron?"

"Keith _isn't_ stupid. That's Lance." Pidge attached a growling sound to her voice that made the red paladin look over at his younger companion. "You know how illnesses can be transmitted via air, or touching a germ infected surface?"

The negative feelings rushed away, replaced with the exact feeling of getting something. "Oh. You mean that it can be transmitted by blood as well?"

"Yeah."

"Then getting the place cleaned up makes sense." Keith turned his head just in time to realize Ryo's face was near his, but also in time to notice the look of disgust on his cousin's face.

"Let's go. Hopefully, they'll be finished by the time we get back."


	27. Feed Me

No matter what way she looked at the scenario, Ryo just ended up complicating things. On top of the fact his attitude stunk, there was also the fact the stranger stuck to his charge like a clue but made Keith uncomfortable in the process. Leaving the mess in the kitchen didn't seem right, even though Ryo said someone else would be taking cleaning up after the incident involving the red paladin.

Ryo also took the money from her, shoving it into his pocket with annoyance, before the three teens found themselves walking to the restaurant under Keith's instructions. When they walked through the door, Pidge watched the little old lady behind the counter at the entrance move from behind, her face brightening at seeing the red paladin, but also how her friend's own face brightened up. She reached out and touched his arm.

" _Come. Come and eat!_ " The old woman's fingers wrapped around his sleeve, tugging him towards a table. " _You, Matt and the stranger come, though I don't know why Matt is dressed in a dress._ "

Keith's eyes widened. " _That's not Takashi's best friend, but his best friend's little sister._ "

" _Oh. Takashi and his friend talked about her. I remember that."_

The red paladin's eyes blinked a couple of times in confusion. " _I don't remember. Was it one of those times I wasn't here?_ "

" _No, no._ " The old woman patted his hand. " _You're just oblivious. She is most definitely welcome._ "

Pidge's honey colored eyes blinked a couple of times, wondering why the woman brought up her brother's name, but also what the two were saying. Ryo started after the old woman and Keith, so Pidge followed suit. She sat down at the table, gently straightening out her dress before sliding into the booth. She looked around, realizing the place was rather nice, which meant she needed to be on her best behavior. Her eyes closed, knowing full well she found proper manners difficult.

The green paladin waited for a menu to be put in front of them, but also noticed how Ryo still kept his sword at his side. Her lips pushed together. "Is it actually alright for you to carry your sword like that?"

"Akira has his blade, doesn't he?"

"Not on me." Keith folded his arms as he leaned into the table. "I'm still in my garrison uniform."

Pidge took a deep breath, realizing both were dense in their own ways. "I think a knife is very different than a sword."

The two cousins spoke in near unison. "Both can kill somebody."

The green paladin let her eyes narrow. "Yeah. Guys are stupid." She watched Ryo look her in the eye, his eyes indicating he disagreed with her statement, but also continued to find her an annoyance. Watching him, she knew that as long as he was around Keith, they could not in any way discuss plans regarding getting back to their own world, which meant she might as well enjoy herself while she could, and think of a plan in the meantime.

Ryo looked around at the place, the menu still not coming to them. Pidge noticed how his eyes narrowed, and how he took everything in, while Keith remained oblivious in regards to what was around him, and simply pulled his legs up so they were crossed. The older of the three teens took a deep breath. " _Say. This restaurant wouldn't have any connection with the family, would it?_ "

Keith's eyes blinked a couple of times. "What do you mean? Also, speak English in front of Pidge."

His cousin gave him a dirty look, and yet Pidge found herself wondering what Ryo actually said. Food came out suddenly despite not having placed an order. "Yeah. This place has no connection to the family."

Pidge felt her jaw twist, not liking how the tension grew. "What is that supposed to mean exactly?"

The color drained from Keith's face, his eyes darkening, indicating Ryo had picked a subject he didn't want to talk about. In turn, the cousin's facial features also darkened, and the two looked each other in the eye. Ryo was the first to speak. "Why don't you tell her what I mean?"

"Ryo is implying that the restaurant owners may have some kind of connection to the Shirogane family. He's probably not incorrect, as the family is rather large, with both the main branch and quite a few side branches. I also can't deny the fact Shiro and I have always gotten special treatment when we've come here. I just want to think of the owners as a nice old couple."

Pidge felt her chest tighten, not at all sure what to think of the revelation. "It other words, your family is rich and privileged?" She let out a deep sigh. "Not that I'm exactly one to talk."

"Could we possibly talk about that later?"

"Yeah." The green paladin decided to change the subject, by beginning to point her finger at a dish she wished to try. "So…"

"Are you really related to Professor Holt?" Ryo's question was rather abrupt, and while he seemed to have more social mannerisms than Keith, there were other manners he lacked.

"What of it?"

"It's rather surprising, considering your lack of decorum. I couldn't figure out how you and Akira became friends, but the fact your siblings are friends makes far more sense than him going and making friends on his own."

Pidge felt her entire body heat up, the fire surging to her head. "Look! I don't like it when people talk bad about my friends!"

"Don't shout. This isn't the place." Ryo commented, much like a mother hen.

"I wasn't yelling, just talking loudly." Pidge hissed.

"And Akira, stop sitting like that."

The old woman came over, suddenly pulling on Keith's cheek. " _Eat! Eat! You are skin and bones! You've been so long since seeing me, you need to add meat to those bones of yours!_ "

" _May I ask what branch are you from?_ "

"Ryo!" Keith obviously didn't like what his cousin said.

"What did he say?" Pidge found herself becoming frustrated with her chopsticks.

"Something rather impolite." The red paladin managed to use the chopsticks with ease.

"Asking about her connections to the family."

"There's nothing wrong..."

Keith interrupted, his attention having drawn to Pidge's attempt to use the chopsticks, resulting in him pointing his own at Ryo. "Hey. Do you know that trick used for when someone's learning to use chopsticks."

" _What_ are you doing?" Ryo's eye twitched, making Pidge dislike him even more.

"I'm pointing my chopsticks at you and…"

"How many times have you been told that pointing chopsticks are impolite?"

The red paladin simply stared, before speaking up. "I thought to stick chopsticks into a bowl of rice and to hand food with chopsticks was impolite."

"Well, at least you know that much."

"Could you two stop it!" Pidge glared at her chopsticks. "In case you haven't noticed, well, Keith's noticed. I am struggling with these things."

"One second." The woman said with a strange accent, before taking the chopsticks from Pidge. " _Her brother needed this trick the first few times as well._ "

"And Akira needed it until he was like, what, six or seven?" Ryo's tone of voice made Pidge feel ill.

The old woman pulled on his ear. " _Which branch of the family I am from is none of your business. However, I am in a position to let the head know of your poor behavior._ "

The comment was directed at Ryo, but Keith swallowed as well. Pidge watched the two begin eating, and she found the fulcrum trick to work quite well. When things had calmed down, that is when the small ghost-like alien floated into their viewpoint.


	28. Whispers

Ryo choose to not mention the floating ghost creature that looked like the object many children in Japan made to hang up in regards to warding off rain due to the fact nobody else seemed to notice the creature. His dark eyes blinked a couple of times upon seeing the creature float in front of him a second time, taking a deep breath in an attempt to pretend his mind wasn't going insane. Both Akira – or Keith as he preferred being called, unfortunately – and the girl who liked being called Pidge seemed to notice.

" _You know, the fact they both don't like going by their real names says a lot._ " Ryo stopped eating briefly. "Something the matter."

Keith opened his mouth, only for Pidge to speak up first. "Nope."

The three finished the meal in quiet, and the old woman also made sure they had plenty of leftovers, which irritated Ryo that he had to help his cousin carry them. Pidge began to follow them to the bus when he finally had enough. "Look, are you going to ever go home.?"

"Um…" The small female blinked a couple of times, tilting her head to the side.

"Does your family know where you are?"

"Not really. I kind of snuck onto the base. I technically wasn't supposed to see Keith, as you were coming to pick him up, but the garrison psychiatrist had no problems with that."

"Yeah. What was up with that. Why was the garrison psychiatrist involved?" Ryo held onto his bag. " _I need to get rid of her. She's such a nuisance._ "

"You're not very bright, are you." Pidge pushed up her glasses, and if she wasn't shorter than him, would have been looking down her nose at him.

" _Yeah. Major nuisance._ "

"You saw the blood. Do you think they'd not get her involved?"

" _Point taken._ " Ryo reached out his hand and waved it gently. "So, look here. You really should be leaving."

"I don't trust you."

" _I'm not surprised._ " The older of the two cousins glared at her. "And isn't your family going to be wondering where you were? Don't you understand that intruding on another person's family is…"

"Pidge isn't intruding." Keith piped up.

Ryo found himself irritated by the fact his cousin didn't seem to understand that the young female was indeed intruding. " _Look…"_

"Speak in English."

"It's improper."

"Why?"

"Why?" Ryo's eyes blinked before he shook his head. "Come on! We need to talk without her butting in, as a family."

He watched Keith tense up, his eyes flashing with anger. "Family? You mean the family which shuffled me off to a side branch because they wanted nothing to do with me?"

The older cousin forced the air out of his lungs, shaking his head again. "Stop it. I don't want to talk about that nonsense of yours."

"It's not nonsense."

"What about the fact I need to talk to Keith without you butting in?"

Ryo ground his teeth together, his irritation at the small pipsqueak growing. "Seriously? He's not supposed to be left unsupervised. That's my orders."

"I can watch him."

The older of the three teens blinked a couple of times. "How can that not go wrong?"

"I told you that I don't trust you. So…" The sound of a phone went off, and Pidge's eyes widened before she removed her backpack, diving in to pull out a phone. "Hello?" There came a pause, and then a sigh as she hung up. "You win only because I have to go home. I'll see you later Keith. Sorry."

Ryo glanced over at his cousin, watching as Keith shifted nervously from foot to foot until their bus arrived, and Pidge waited with them for her own bus. He breathed a sigh of relief when they were no longer near that strange girl, and they sat on the bus. He noticed everyone staring, but also that the ghost like the thing had followed them, and landed on Keith's head, yet his cousin paid the creature no mind, making Ryo's eye twitch.

However, eventually, though his cousin noticed the look on his face when he turned his head. "What?"

"Nothing. There are some things we need to talk about when we get home." Ryo switched back to speaking Japnese.

"I don't want to."

"We _have_ to." The rest of the ride home was silent, and Keith flopped onto the couch after dumping the paper bag onto the counter, leaving Ryo to put things away. The older of the cousins then picked up the bag of medicine provided by the garrison which was now set on the counter and noticed how the floor was clean. Letting out a sigh, before opening up his bag. "I have some things for you."

"I don't want anything."

The young man took a deep breath, letting it out of his nostrils. He picked out the item he received from his sister before walking over and dumping the object in Keith's lap. His cousin flinched, looking at the item as if he'd been stung. "Hey. What is this?"

"I don't know. It's from my little sister."

Keith poked the package. "Why?"

Ryo found himself in a rather nasty mood, not liking how Keith continued to brush him off and decided to push some buttons. "She's apparently gotten it into her head that she's going to marry you."

"She's my cousin." The color drained from Keith's family in a rather amusing manner.

"Cousins can marry in Japan." Ryo watched Keith swallow nervously, before looking up at him, making actual eye contact.

"You're sister's _twelve._ "

"Eleven actually."

"That's disturbing, and why me?"

"Because you're closer in age than Takashi is."

"That's just creepy!"

"Oh, I know it is."

Keith stood up, shoving the package back at him, his own irritation showing in his eyes. "Then why the hell did you give this to me! She's _your_ sister!"

"And what? Tell her that I didn't give you her present?" Ryo felt his mouth twist into a smirk, shoving the package back into the others hands.

His cousin's eyes narrowed. "You're only doing this because you're trying to annoy me." Instead of reacting further, Keith simply sat down, folding his arms across his chest in frustration. His lips pushed together, not responding to the package he set down next to him. Ryo took a deep breath. "You aren't going to open it?"

"So what? You can tease me about what your sister got me? No, thank you. You're always that way, you know. It's why I don't like you."

The older cousin felt his eyebrows shoot up. "You don't like me? I'm the one who doesn't like you. When have you ever messed up?"

A shudder ran through Keith's body, and he looked up at Ryo. "Don't…"

"You don't know what it's like, you know, to mess up."

The younger of the two cousins stood up, his face getting closer to Ryo's. "How can I not know what it is like to mess up? My very existence is a mistake. I can't for the life of me ever live up to the family expectations. If I had, I would have been accepted a long time ago. You, you're always doing exactly what everyone in the family wants, never messing up."

"No. I messed up." The words hit Ryo hard, a nasty memory of a feeling welling into his chest, yet he couldn't place where it came from.

"Doing what…"

The older of the two teens took a deep breath, a few flashes of memory surging forth. First the sight of a pilot's cockpit, then a shadowy figure he couldn't make out.

"Ryo."

He didn't like the concern in Keith's voice. "What?"

"You're acting like…"

"Like what?"

"Shiro when…" Ryo watched his cousin's body language carefully, how his hands clenched the back of the couch. The ghost finally lifted up off Keith's head, and this time as Ryo's eyes followed the thing, he saw his cousin's as well. This didn't register, not like the feeling of needing to fix something that he'd messed up on, but couldn't place.

Keith remained silent as Ryo returned to his bag, bringing out the sword wrapped carefully by their grandfather. He took a deep breath, watching as Keith sat down, burying his face in his hands. "Maybe you do know what it's like to mess up."

"Shut up Ryo. I'm done…"

"I'm not done talking to you, though." Ryo took a deep breath. "I know that you think that the family doesn't accept you, but that's not true."

He started walking over, carrying the blade, feeling as if some kind of healing could go on, but saw Keith's head shoot up. "Accept? You're one to talk. You never once accepted me. We've never gotten along."

" _Nope. You never did accept Keith. You…_ " The thought buzzed away as if there were something important that he'd forgotten. He stood in front of his cousin, holding out the blade. "Grandfather, though, he felt it was the time you had this." He watched Keith's head dart up, noting the pain in his cousin's eyes. "Take it."

"I can't."

Ryo let out a deep breath, exasperated, but purposefully fighting back the feeling, as if there was a reason for doing so. "Akira." His fingers carefully unwrapped the cords, his throat tightening, remembering the fact Keith's training was limited in comparison. "If you're worried about the fact you've never used a real sword before, I can teach you the basics."

"That's not…" Keith's eyes drifted to the blade, which was adorned with a bright red strap, his favorite color if Ryo remembered correctly. That was also something Ryo never expected to remember, as he'd never been interested in his cousin beyond wishing he'd never existed. Yet something screamed things were different, despite the need to act like things were. "I can't."

Ryo let out a sigh, placing the hilt into one of Keith's hands. It was then that his cousin let out a hissing sound, as if in pain, just as his wrist buckled under the weight, dropping the sword so it clattered to the ground. "That…"

"I'm _sorry_." Keith tugged at the sleeve of his garrison uniform, his lips pushing together in frustration. Another sound of pain came.

"What…" Ryo knew his tone of voice showed worry, and of course, Keith picked up on it."

"I'm _fine_!" His cousin stood up, attempting to leave Ryo, and the sword behind, but Ryo grabbed his arm, knowing something was wrong, before pulling back the sleeve. What he saw made Ryo gasp.


	29. Breaking Reality

The concern Ryo showed was unsettling.

Keith remembered his cousin first showing concern back when Ryo tried to cut Lance down with his sword and brushed it off as simply his imagination. However, he couldn't deny the look of worry, maybe even pity on his cousin's face when he dropped the sword due to not being able to hold the sudden weight of a katana due to the injuries to his wrists. The worry aimed at him by Ryo was foreign, but so was an attempt to patronize. Why his cousin acted this way, he didn't know.

The fact someone other than Shiro focused that much attention on him was sickening, and he stood up, wanting to escape from the room as well as the sickening feeling in his stomach. Ryo, however, grabbed his arm in a manner which made Keith stop, as most of the physical interactions with his cousin during childhood involved getting into fights of some kind. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ryo move his hand to pull back the sleeve, and he attempted to move only to realize exactly how strong of a grip Ryo had.

Keith's eyes snapped shut, his mouth opening as _that_ feeling rushed over him, but quickly opened them up to see what Ryo's end reaction would be. _That_ feeling of being overstimulated simply wasn't something he knew how to describe, let alone how to talk about his emotions with other people unless it was Shiro, and even then it proved problematic. His older brother at least knew him, but then Pidge also seemed to know him as well, which helped him feel comfortable around her.

Add to this, when people changed their behavior like this, he found himself unable to read them. He looked away, avoiding eye contact as he did so, not wanting to remember the fact he struggled with reading situations or the fact this, in his mind, made him not the best choice for the leadership position. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ryo reach out with his other hand, pulling on the garrison jacket he'd hesitated to remove.

He now faced Ryo, one sleeve rolled up slightly so the injury could be seen. Ryo moved quickly, far quicker than Keith felt was his own personal best, before lifting up both wrists to expect the bandages. The red paladin glared at the other teen, before pulling his hands away. The look of pity, and worry on Ryo's face simply just didn't sit well, and he felt like he needed to get away from his cousin. "I'm going to bed."

"Hold on."

Keith turned on his heels, walking away, before closing the door to his room behind him, flinching at the pain he felt in his wrists. His lips pushed together, frustrated to say the least. His eyes drifted to the window as a means of escaping but closed his eyes wondering what kind of trouble would occur if he did something else to effect the trust of the adults in this world. He pulled his legs up, wiggling his toes, before closing his eyes.

After a few minutes of quiet bliss, the light to his room turned on, and he jolted up, attempting to reach for some kind of weapon. Ryo simply stood there, having opened the room to intrude, the bag of medicine in his arms. His eyes were narrowed, indicating he wasn't amused. Keith felt his chest and throat tightened. "What the quiznack are you doing!"

"Quiznack? What kind of word is that?"

The red paladin sat in a crossed-legged position and watched as his cousin sat on the other end of the futon in a similar position. "What are you _doing_ in my room Ryo?"

"Do you really think I can leave you alone?" The older cousin's next comment made Keith bristle, and apparently, Ryo noticed. "I _can't_. In case you haven't figured out yet, the reason I'm here, and Shinji is here for that matter, is because of _that._ " Ryo pointed his finger at the red paladin's wrists, and Keith's head fell.

" _So. This did end up getting the old man involved. Quiznack. I've really messed things up for everyone._ " Keith's hands tightened around the pants of his school uniform.

"Honest question. Did you bother reading any of the instructions they gave you? I did. You've got to change out the bandages just like you did while in the garrison infirmary. Or did you not notice them doing that?" Ryo found his words met with a deep sigh. "I thought not. Remove your jacket so I can change the bandages Akira."

"I can do it myself!" The red paladin's head jolted up, his eyes narrowed in anger.

"Really? You dropped the sword back there."

Keith felt his mind was on fire from the level of frustration, the wish to be back on the Castle of Lions picking away, as he'd found the place rather calming, and he could deal with even Lance there. His fingers fumbled with the latches, before pulling the jacket off, letting out a hiss of pain. Glancing up, the red paladin saw the look of worry and pity again, so he turned to avoiding eye contact again.

Ryo took his hands gently in his, sending a shudder down his spine, as his cousin was acting way too nice. Not to mention the fact, as the older teen rebandaged Keith's wrists, he was also way to patient. Keith's eyes closed, waiting for Ryo to finish and leave. The job finished, he started to let the quite calm him down, believing his cousin would leave.

"Can we talk?"

Keith's eyes snapped open. "What?"

"I want to know why you did that to yourself."

The red paladin's eyes drifted down to his wrists, and his hands flexed. "None of your business."

"None of my business. Need I remind you that I'm stuck babysitting you because of that stunt you pulled."

"Oh. Well, that must be to your liking, as you can hold that over my head just like you do everything else, right?" Keith's head darted up as his anger started to boil up, thus making eye contact. Instead of seeing anger, he saw the worry again, and his head jerked away.

"Actually, I don't like this any more than you do." Ryo then said something that sent chills down his spine. "If something's been going on, why didn't you tell anybody instead of letting it get this far?"

The red paladin's jaw tensed, and his head snapped up. "Tell somebody? Like who? You? After everything you did to me growing up, you actually think I'd want to turn to _you_ for help? I don't trust you. You, just like everybody else, never cared."

Ryo's facial features flashed, changing from worry and pity to anger. "Never cared. That's a bold face lie."

Keith felt his entire body go cold, his throat tightening. "What…"

"You heard me. I _do_ care."

"Liar." The red paladin felt his voice crack.

"I'm _not_ lying. You're behavior, you doing this, it's not like you."

"What would you know! You don't know me! Not at all!"

"That's a lie! Shinji and I spent far more time with you then Shiro ever did, prior to you moving in with him! I mean, our mother is, after all, a Kagone, so we got to see you at both the Shirogane and Kogane get-togethers, while Shiro barely if ever got to see you! I know you a lot better than you think, Akira! We're also the same age, and were expected to hang out together at times!"

Keith felt a sudden fear run through his body. "No, that's a lie. If you knew me as well as you said you would have known what went on during middle school! Yet you did nothing! Because of you, you just implied you could have done _something_!"

"You're right. I did know. We may not have gone to the same school, but I did know you were getting bullied. I did know you started locking yourself into your room, and I did nothing. For that, I'm sorry."

The words hit like a lead brick to the gullet. Keith instinctively pulled his legs up and covered his ears. "No."

"Stop that Akira. This isn't funny."

Again, the red paladin's instincts kicked in, allowing his legs to push himself up and out of the room. "Nope. Not listening."

"Where the hell do you think you're going!" Ryo was also quick.

"Away from you." Keith slipped into the bathroom through the laundry room, shutting the door behind him and locking it. He slipped down onto the cold floor, hearing the doorknob turn as Ryo attempted to test whether he could open it.

"Come on Akira, let me in."

"No." Keith felt a shudder run down his spine, pulling his knees up to his chest. "You're not the real Ryo."

"What the fuck! That's not funny!"

"Yeah, well this fake world's not funny either!"


	30. Keith Is

The conversation with the family head was honestly not a pleasant one and left a sour taste in Shinji's mouth. When the garrison staff informed him that his grandfather wished to speak with him, he thought the reason had something to do with why his cousin Takashi's mission was now delayed by a couple of days in getting back, but he didn't expect the reason to be what it was.

"Shinji, a few days ago your cousin Akira attempted to commit suicide."

The young man's mind whirred, remembering when he first met Shiro and his little brother. The wake for his uncle and aunt was honestly a depressing and somber event in his young life, and yet he still remembered the smile and enthusiasm on the younger brother's face, but also how Keith hadn't understood that no, his parents weren't coming back. The adults blamed this on the four-year-old rather than accepting the fact Keith was still a child. Over the years, Keith stopped smiling.

"No. I don't want to believe that Akira would do something like that. I know he has his dark moods, as does Takashi, but I don't see either of them giving up on life. You must be mistaken."

The old man pushed forward a folder. "I'm not mistaken. I wish for you to take a look at this. I believe you're to go bag is already packed."

Shinji hadn't wanted to open the folder. "My to go bag is packed." Instead, he decided to press. "I don't want to believe that kid would purposefully try to kill himself. He might shut himself in like last time, but this? No."

The head of the Shirogane family tapped the folder. "You need to read the report before you make a judgment of the situation."

The nineteen-year-old opened the folder, carefully reading over the report. His eyes widened, as his breath drew short, his chest tightening before his eyes darted up. "Is this true? I mean, did Akira really find himself in a situation where someone could drug him with ketamine?"

"I think you're aware of your cousin's inability to read certain social situations."

The teen felt like vomiting, his eyes closing. "I'm aware. I guess, from what the rest of the report says, I should be glad that he doesn't remember what happened to him that night. I'm surprised he doesn't realize…"

The words refused to come out of his mouth. "That someone attempted to either kidnap him or sexually assault him that night? I honestly worry about that child."

"Which is why you're having me interfere?"

"Actually, it was Shiro who requested that you and Ryo keep an eye on Akira, as he's unable to do so." The family head narrowed her eyes. "Not only does this matter warrant investigating, but also keeping it under wraps so it's not used against Akira, he also was put into a state of dysphoria because of the drug, and may still be that way. Apparently, he was under the impression that Takashi was dead, and that he was in a different reality."

"Got it."

It was thus that he found himself here. He remembered how his sister was standing there was he went in, how someone retrieved his to go bag, and also Ryo's dissatisfaction about getting to go. He was now having to deal with two juvenile delinquents who seemed to know Keith, and the two sat there in front of him, looking rather disgruntled. "So…"

"So, we're getting written up." The scrawny one spoke up.

"Well, yes. You two were late for class, so I do have to file a report. However, given the circumstances, I'm also recommending no punishment be taken."

"Yeah. I doubt Iverson would take your recommendation because of he kind of hates us. No, he does hate us." The big one twiddled his thumbs. "But thanks anyways."

"Actually, you two seem to know Akira. Have either one of you noticed anything weird of late?" Shinji watched both looking at each other before Lance held up his hands.

"Look, I'm not going to say nothin' to get one of my buddies in trouble."

Hunk nudged him. "Yeah. I think he means have we noticed anyone bothering Keith, not whether or not Keith's doing anything out of character."

"Oh." The young man folded his arms across his chest. "If I had seen something, I would have done something about it."

" _Well, that's good, if he's telling the truth._ "

"Except you don't notice that stuff, Lance! And yes, I'm a coward, so if I saw something, I likely would have run tail and run. So I didn't see anything."

"No. You'd have helped to buddy." Lance's eyes widened. "Oh. There is the fact Shiro and my sis – she's the garrison psychiatrist – they seem to think I've been bullying Keith, but I have absolutely _not_ been bullying him. He's my friend, and my rival, so…"

Shinji let one eyebrow rise up, his mouth twisting in annoyance. "Rival. How can you say you're his rival, and not be bullying him? What you says honestly doesn't make sense."

Lance swallowed, sliding down in his chair. "I'm honestly confused as to how us being rivals can be construed as bullying."

"I think you should leave Akira well enough alone." Shinji tapped his fingers against the desk. He remembered all too well the interactions between Keith and Ryo, a rather brutal rivalry.

The teen threw his hands up in the air. "Seriously! Why is it that adults just don't listen! I'm not bullying Keith! And seriously, when I find out who was, I am seriously going to kick their asses!"

"I need you two to head back to your classes please." Shinji watched the two leave, before heading to his next class to teach. He thought over what the kid said, before heading to the garrison psychiatrist, knocking on the door. "Are you free?"

"Oh. You must be Shinji. Takashi and your grandfather said you might stop by, but more importantly, your cousin said I could trust you out of all your family in regards to information regarding Keith."

"Actually, I had a run in with your little brother."

The woman let out a sigh. "Sorry, but he's supposed to be staying away from Keith. I'm not sure if he got the memo yet, but Iverson is planning on calling him into his office this afternoon. He'll stop being a pest, I promise."

"Yet your brother claims they're friends."

"Right now, I'm not trusting a word my brother says, as he's been sneaking around again. You've perhaps looked at his record, and know he gets into trouble. To be honest, even if he's not bullying Keith, it's best those two don't hang out, with all things considered. Could you close the door behind you?"

The young man closed the door, before sitting down on the couch. "By all things considered, do you mean the incident? I find it hard that kid, your brother would be involved. He's rather loud, so someone would have noticed something?"

"Maybe. Actually, what I wanted to talk to you about is actually something Shiro and I've been talking about in regards to Keith, the fact your cousin is on the autism spectrum."

Shinji felt his heart sink, but his jaw also tense up. "Wait. How can Akira be on the spectrum? There is no official diagnosis."

The woman sighed. "No. There isn't. Takashi requested I keep the diagnosis unofficial. You of all people should know what kind of effect such a diagnosis would have in regards to Keith's relationship to the rest of the family. This is something even the head doesn't know about."

"And yet, I think he suspects something is wrong. It does though mean he doesn't have to bring it up with the rest of the family." Shinji glanced down at his hands.

"You don't seem surprised."

The nineteen-year-old chuckled. "I honestly suspected something myself, when I first met Akira, but I honestly don't know enough about autism to say if I can agree with it. I thought those with autism are retarded mentally, and he's certainly not that. He's quite smart when you put him in the right circumstances."

"You're thinking of someone whose low functioning. Keith is actually high functioning. You're probably aware of his lack of social skills, but not getting the humor, or being slow on the uptake in regards to figures of speech."

"Yes."

"How about sensitivities to stimuli."

Shinji closed his eyes. "I and Takashi have both seen Keith get over stimulated."

"How about obsessive interests?" This simply got a nod as everything sunk in.

"The reason you're telling me this?" Shinji didn't look her in the eye. "I mean, that Akira has autism?"

"There are various reasons. Takashi felt what happened to Keith would upset you, and wanted me to let you know that even though you want to touch your cousin, it's best not to do so. Keith's over stimulated right now, and you need to let him touch you or let him know that you're touching him. If he wasn't overstimulated, you'd still be needing to get him used to you touching him. You're less likely to get a reaction. Same with food. If he doesn't want to try something new, don't force him."

"Well, that explains the pantry Ryo was complaining about." Shinji stood up. "If that's all, I'd best get to Takashi's place to make sure that those two don't kill each other."

"Takashi has some books in his room on the subject in his closet, if that will help."

"Yeah. I'll be sure to read up on them tonight. It might help in my investigation." The bus ride afterward went smoothly without a hitch, and he found himself stopping at the small convenient store nearby the house, before heading home with the groceries. The door was unlocked, and he stepped in, only to find a rather annoyed younger brother. "What's wrong?"

"Akira locked himself in the bathroom."

Shinji set the groceries on the counter, before heading into the laundry room and knocking on the door to the bathroom.

"I don't care what you say! You're not the real Ryo."

The nineteen-year-old felt his face twist up before turning to look at his brother. "What did you do to him this time?"

"What do you mean to do to him this time! All I was doing was being nice for once, yet that set him off!" Ryo threw his arms out. "What is up with that?"

The older of the two brothers glared at him. "Yeah. The fact you're acting nice for once is the matter." Shinji knocked again. "Akira… or do you prefer to be called Keith?"

"Keith…"

"Okay. It's me, your older cousin Shinji. Can you come out of there so I can make dinner?"

"No!"

The oldest teen let out a sigh. "Because you think Ryo's an imposter?"

"He's acting weird!"

"Oh, I agree with you on that one." Shinji folded his arms across his chest. "That doesn't though make him an imposter does it?"

He heard a shuffling sound on the other side and then heard the door unlock. Keith opened it up a crack, peeking out with one eye. "Doesn't it?"

"I don't know about you, but I think I like imposter Ryo over him acting like a jerk."

"Hey!"

Shinji held back a chuckle at his brother's response, but the door closed, locking again. A sigh escaped his lips, before speaking up again. "I'm going to go and make dinner. I hope you feel like coming out to eat."

* * *


	31. Not So Family Dinner

Keith continued to sit in the bathroom with his back against the door, his legs pulled up to his chest, his arms wrapped around while his fingers gripped onto the undershirt of his uniform, taking a few deep breaths as he tried wrapping his mind around the situation. His chin rested on top of his arms, as he attempted to think of a way to find a way out, but hands down he knew Pidge and Hunk would understand this fake world far better. Every so often Ryo would knock, and Keith would tell him to go away.

Another knock came at the door, and he spoke up rather emphatically. "I don't care what you say! You're not the real Ryo."

He heard two people talking on the other side of the door, making his irritation grow when another knock came. "Akira… or do you prefer to be called Keith?"

The voice most certainly wasn't Ryo. "Keith…"

"Okay. It's me, your older cousin Shinji. Can you come out of there so I can make dinner?"

"No!" His older cousin began to pry into the fact Keith felt Ryo was an imposter, only for Shinji's attempts to prove unsuccessful, and he finally left him alone.

He didn't give up and came back after some time. "Hey. Dinner's ready."

"Not hungry."

"Okay, but would you like to talk to Takashi? I'm planning on setting up a video chat with him after dinner is finished, but that kind of means you need to eat doesn't it."

Keith let out a deep sigh, before finding a way to rock himself onto his heels without using his wrists, and yet this proved to be painful as well. He let out a groan and opened the door, only to find nobody there waiting for him. He slipped out of the room, staring at the two people in the room, tensing up with the knowledge that the family, outside of Shiro, always seemed like strangers to him. He walked over to the island counter, noticing how Shinji set things up so the three could eat together.

He wanted to grab a plate of food and run into his room to hide.

Instead, he managed to sit down on the stool, watching as Shinji dished up the pasta dish and salad for everyone, and tucked in as soon as the food was placed in front of him. Ryo looked up at him, his facial features bothering Keith, as he couldn't read what was going on, except for the hint of worry and pity, which the red paladin hated. Keith did, however, like the silence, and found this pleasant enough to close his eyes.

"So…" Shinji spoke up, using a tone that made Keith feel as if he were in trouble, and he made movements to get up and leave. His dark blue eyes opened in time to see his older cousin hold out his hand, indicating he should stop. "Wait. You're not in trouble. I need to talk to Ryo about something."

"Well, it doesn't involve me."

"Keith, you're family, and we're going to have to put up with each other for next week or so." Shinji smiled at him, the look making him cringe. It wasn't that there was something negative about the look, and instead of a number of positive vibes, much like Shiro. The red paladin poked at his food, remembering the fact Shinji was always that way. It wasn't exactly an act of being positive, but simply being kind because one could.

"What do you need to talk to me about?"

"How about drawing your sword on the other cadets?"

"What about it?"

"It's not to happen again."

"He was a threat to Akira. If I recollect…"

The mouthful of food in Keith's mouth went down the wrong tube, and he began to choke. His fork dropped to the counter, and his fist began to pound down next to his plate as he attempted to regain his breath. However, as soon as the food was no longer a problem, he found himself bursting out into laughter, only to topple off the stool. He attempted to grab onto the edge of the counter, only for the pain in his wrist to force him to let go. The red paladin landed hard on his side, as he couldn't use his hands to catch himself, and the air escaped his lungs.

His eyes blinked a couple of times, as he heard the sound of Shinji's utensil dropping to his plate, and out of the corner of his eye, Keith saw Ryo staring at him, shock on his face. His older cousin came around from the other side of the counter, lifting him up, adding to the shock of landing on the ground. Shinji tugged him to a sitting position, his calloused hands supporting the red paladin before touching their foreheads together.

This made Keith tense up, his cheeks heating up slightly.

His older cousin pulled away, letting out a sigh. "Well, you don't have a fever."

The red paladin felt his shoulders quake, one leg pulled up so he could rest his arm on his knee. His chin lowered down so he wouldn't need to look either in the eye. Ryo let out a sigh. "What is wrong with him. Like, all I saw was that kid was a threat to…"

Keith felt the air come out of his nose in a painful manner as he attempted to hold back his laughter. One of his hands clapped over his mouth, and yet the laughter still spurted out. He couldn't stop either, thinking of Lance as an actual threat, but also remembering when they first met Coran and Allura, and how the blue paladin and advisor danced around attempting to bluff their way through. Somehow he stifled out a remark. "Sorry…"

Shinji sat down in front of him. "What exactly is so funny?"

"To be honest…" Keith felt tears well around his eyes, due to laughing so much. "The idea of Lance ever being a threat." He felt his body tremble and put his head down to calm down, taking a few deep breaths. His eyes opened wide, the corners of his mouth twisting up, realizing that the place he felt like he belonged, that was with the other paladins. This made him want to get back to the Castle of Lions even more, but he couldn't explain this to his cousin.

"How about you finish eating, so I can put Shiro onto a voice chat for you? This is the last night he's at the Mars base, and you won't be able to see him until a week from tomorrow, next Monday."

" _Except, he's not the real Shiro._ " Keith let his mouth twist into a smile.


	32. Time to Sleep

Even before he left Japan, he knew deep down something was wrong.

Ryo knew as soon as the family headset him the task of babysitting his cousin, as he knew full well Keith could take care of himself. Even more shocking was the bandages adorning Keith's wrists, a tale-tell sign of someone attempting to take their own life, and yet in the back of his mind, the sixteen-year-old considered this act highly out of character for his cousin. The fact Keith wasn't acting like himself meant something was seriously wrong, explaining why the family head, no, Takashi Shirogane, requested he and Shinji come out.

Keith barely reacted, almost as if his suicide attempt meant nothing to him. The fact his cousin didn't care levied a heavy feeling into Ryo's stomach, the feeling of guilt rising up as he remembered his own attitude towards Keith when they were children, leaving him wondering if he'd done something wrong, or if it was even a matter of not knowing. His cousin pulled away, yanking away his arm. "I'm going to bed."

"Hold on." Ryo felt he should talk to Keith about what happened, and yet his cousin didn't wish to stick around. His eyes drifted over to the medicine, and lifted up the bag, pulling out the instructions. His mouth pushed together, noting the medicine before turning to the instructions regarding the bandaging of the wrists, only for his eyes to drift back to the bottle. " _Is he even aware of the fact they're having him take this stuff?_ "

Ryo shook his head, before heading towards Keith's room with the bandages. He flipped on the light, startling his cousin. Keith's eyes flashed with anger as he sat up, and strange words left his mouth. "What the quiznack are you doing!"

"Quiznack? What kind of word is that?" A silence fell between the two, and Ryo moved to sit on the other side of the futon, watching Keith's temper grow. His cousin questioned why Ryo was there before he responded. The entire conversation was tense, but he also didn't know how Keith might react. "Can we talk?"

Of course, Keith didn't want to talk, nor did the conversation go well. "You, just like everybody else, never cared."

The words hit hard, the sickening admittance at the back of his mind. Something told him he did care about his cousin, despite all of his bluster pretending not to, and yet how he came to this conclusion was missing. "Never cared. That's a bold face lie."

Keith turned it back around, calling him the liar.

Ryo ground his teeth, his frustration growing, as the memories of arguing with Keith, and their rivalry surfaced. Somehow, for some reason, that relationship was important, even though he'd never admitted it, and even denied the fact. In the back of his head Ryo even found himself admitting he was jealous of Shiro, yet irritated with how much Keith didn't get _it_ , what was so obvious and right there, and yet…

Keith continued to call him a liar. "No. That is a lie. If you knew me as well as you said you would have known what went on during middle school! Yet you did nothing! Because of you, you just implied you could have done _something_!"

The sickening feeling of guilt resurfaced. Ryo ran into the kid who bullied Keith at the Japanese garrison due to the fact the kid knew somebody, though Ryo honestly didn't know. He remembered the many times the kid called Keith a liar for claiming Takashi Shirogane was his older brother. Ryo ignored the banter, letting Keith fight his own fights until the kid found out Ryo was also a Shirogane. " _He's actually not lying. Kogane Akira is my cousin, the second son of my uncle, Takashi-nii's father._ "

It seemed after that, the kid seemed to brag about the things he did, and the matched up to the stories his mother and father discussed, including the fact Keith simply stopped going to school. That kid now competed with him at the garrison, always fighting for the number one position, but really competing with another student for the second and third positions. Ryo found himself admitting the truth, not knowing why. "You're right. I did know. We may not have gone to the same school, but I did know you were getting bullied. I did know you started locking yourself into your room, and I did nothing. For that, I'm sorry."

Keith then lost it, proving far more temperamental than Ryo honestly remembered, locking himself away in the bathroom. His own anger rose up, finding himself frustrated at the fact his cousin didn't accept his apology. The memory of Keith making his life a frustrating mess, aggravating him over some of the simplest things. The other sixteen-year-old didn't come out even for Shinji, not until the promise of talking to Shiro was made. They sat at the kitchen counter, eating the food until Shinji brought up the incident with Lance.

The end result was Keith ending up on the floor, laughing his head off as if he were mad.

Tears welled up in his eyes, a rather wide smile plastering across his face, a sight Ryo hadn't seen since his cousin was rather young, which in turn disturbed him. A memory flickered across his mind regarding how childish Keith always was, but he brushed it aside as Shinji tried to figure out if Keith had a fever or not. After that, dinner was eaten in silence until, as promised, the older Shirogane set up the video chat for Keith. Ryo stood at the back, wanting to ask questions, but holding back.

The screen flickered on, and Shiro appeared, smiling at his younger brother. In fact, his focus was on his younger brother, who leaned forward. "Shiro!"

"Hey, buddy. Are you feeling better?"

Ryo started, watching the rather confused look on Keith's face, almost as if his cousin was facing some kind of dysphoric state. He watched as Keith looked up, his eyes blinking. "Um…"

"I'm not sure what to think of that answer." Shiro chuckled. "Are you upset with the fact Ryo and Shinji are going to spend the next week with you?"

Something clicked, and the youngest of the cousin's eyes widened, his mouth opening wide to protest. "Ryo's an imposter!"

Shinji let out a groan, and Ryo physically flinched. "What! I am not!"

"So…" Shiro cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his neck, while he flashed a wide, white grin at the three over the video chat. "Where did that come from?"

Keith folded his arms, his nostrils flaring. "Ryo's being nice. Way too nice, as if he wants something."

"Hey! Do you have to be so obnoxious?"

"Yeah, so much for Ryo's attempt to be nice." Shinji let out a sigh. Despite this confirmation, the younger cousin still sulked.

Ryo's eyes rolled into the back of his head, before plopping onto the couch, taking his book from his bag, catching sight of the two people in the photograph, noting how much like the man Shiro looked while Keith got closer to the device. "By the way, about Lance…"

"Keith, we can talk about Lance and what to do about him when I get back, okay. Along with everything else we need to talk about."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the look of frustration on Shiro's face. Keith seemed to pick up on it as well. "Did I do something wrong?"

"Keith…" Shiro took a deep breath. "No. I'm just tired. I should probably get an early nights sleep so that I can pilot our ship home, okay?"

" _It's your way of avoiding the subject, but I really can't blame you._ " Ryo snapped the book shut, nothing that the younger of his two cousins also grew frustrated. The video chat snapped off, and Keith frowned, the disappointment evident. The younger of the two Shirogane sibling's narrowed his eyes, noting the glazed over look in Keith's eyes before his cousin headed off to bed. Keith disappeared, and Ryo set his book down.

"What's Keith's medicine for exactly?"

"You shouldn't be prying."

"That's rather hard not to do. He didn't even look at the instructions, but also may need help changing. I saw his wrists. Why didn't you say anything?"

"You and Keith don't exactly get along, and I didn't want you having one more thing to hold over him." Shinji sat on the edge of the sofa.

"Really? It's not something I wouldn't notice."

"Fine. I didn't want you gloating about it on the flight here, but you should also know your place and know that it isn't any of your business."

Ryo sat up, letting the book drop to the floor. "What do you mean by that? Akira is my cousin."

Shinji turned to look at him, his eyes dark, and his mouth twisted in anger. "Really? You've never acted like he was family before? What changed?"

" _Yeah, what did change? This doesn't feel right._ " Ryo looked at the ground.

"I'm going to go and see to Keith. You get to bed yourself. They've got a guest room we can share."

"I'll take the couch." Ryo opened up his book, ignoring the fact his brother took off. He didn't realize when he'd fallen asleep, the book drifting to cover his face, and his hand dropping the photo to the ground. He found himself walking through the Japanese garrison, heading to the office. He remembered how he'd stepped into the room, asking if his reason for being called in had anything to do with the Kerberos mission being delayed, but said words never came. Instead, a heavy weight of guilt settled in, as he sat down in front of his grandfather, Shinji nearby."

" _The mission I am going to give you is of the utmost importance, but you're not to breathe a word of this to anyone._ " The old man clicked a remote, turning on a screen behind him. " _A few days ago, the garrison Takashi graduated from caught sight of this._ "

Ryo's eyes narrowed, noticing the blue lion. " _Is that an enemy airship? I thought the nations of Earth were under a truce._ "

" _First off, that is not an Earth craft. It is Altean, I believe, but they aren't the enemy. The Galra are._ " The screen clicked to another, only Ryo to find himself in pain, slumped over the counsel of a ship, bleeding out.

" _This one is dead. I don't think Zarkon cares if we have one less prisoner, particularly since we've managed to capture the previous blue paladin in cryostasis._ "

The word Voltron flickered across Ryo's brain, as he sat up, the dream quickly fading from his mind and memory, and yet he couldn't forget. A light flickered from the direction of Keith's room, making Ryo reach down to pick up his book, putting the picture back into the book. Questioning reality wasn't a good thing, and yet he could hear someone speaking to Keith who wasn't Shinji.


	33. Safety of One's Room

He was most definitely on edge.

His mind had a way of buzzing and buzzing, the feeling that went with it not going away until late at night when exhaustion got the better of him. Sometimes he would wake in the morning and the buzzing, incessant clatter of thoughts in his head would have faded, but other times the thoughts remained there, lodged in his brain along with the panicky feelings which went along with said thoughts.

Ryo was being a way to nice to him, which didn't help him settling into the reality of this world he was stuck in. While the appearance of the other three paladins settled his mind that he'd not imagined Voltron, the fact remained they were in an alternate world where he wasn't a bit comfortable, not to mention the fact the other paladins weren't at all aware of his discomfort. The only one who came close was Pidge, and while she avoided people, it was honestly for a very different reason.

Shiro also ignored him about Lance. He couldn't blame the black paladin, as Shiro was, so to speak, tired. He was tired because Keith's shenanigan had put the black paladin or the person who should be the black paladin into a situation which was highly stressful. As he lay in is room looking up at the ceiling from his futon, he wondered what would happen now that his older brother was physically and mentally abused by the Galra.

A knock startled him awake, making him sit up to look at Shinji. A hiss escaped his lips as he put weight on his tender wrists.

"I see you're not asleep yet. Can we talk?" The young man who stood in the doorway.

"I don't really want to."

"That's normal." Shinji came over and sat down on the end of the bed despite the fact Keith wasn't in the mood to speak. "About Lance…"

"He's my friend."

"That's what I was worried about."

Keith swallowed, looking away. "So, you don't believe me."

His cousin remained silent for a few minutes, then the red paladin felt a calloused hand patting his leg. "See, that's the problem. I'm aware of how hard it is for you to make friends, but also the fact you can at times be easy to manipulate."

"Lance's isn't manipulating me. I don't think he's smart enough." The red paladin shifted slightly, his wrists hurting. Keith still wanted to get away, not used to other family members lavishing him with attention. His eyes drifted to the ground.

"Hey, it's okay."

"It's not okay. You and Shiro think Lance did something. Nothing happened. I don't even understand why you think something did."

"You slit your wrists."

"I already told you. I did that because I thought the pain would make me go back to the real world." Keith took a deep breath, muttering under his breath. "The real world where Shiro's alive."

"You don't remember…" Shinji stopped. "Never mind. I'm not sure how to put that one. You do understand everyone's worried about you. Particularly Shiro."

"I saw how tired he looked." There was another awkward silence between the two, and Keith swallowed. His eyes darted away, wondering if this was just another one of the ways he didn't fit in with everyone else.

"Tomorrow you're going to be taking an anti-depressant medication the garrison psychiatrist has prescribed."

"Why?" Keith felt his entire body tense up, his head darting up. "I'm not insane."

"That…"

"And I can't pilot if I'm on medication. I can't."

Shinji looked at the bottle, before taking a deep breath. He turned his head back to look at Keith. "Again, I'm so sorry."

The red paladin felt his throat tighten. "I promise. I won't do something like this again. I really wasn't trying to hurt myself. I just…" The sixteen-year-old swallowed, not wanting to admit he was scared, even paranoid, as this only confirmed what they were already saying.

"Look, you're not taking the anti-depressant because we think you're insane." Shinji's words made Keith's eyes snap shut against the harsh reality. "Keith?"

"Then what?"

"Something happened that night, that you can't remember that's causing you to have anxiety attacks. The medication is to curb the anxiety attacks and make you less on the edge so that over the next couple of weeks you can function. It's temporary, hopefully."

"I'm fine. I'm perfectly fine."

"No, you're not"

"Shiro…"

"Shiro gave the garrison psychiatrist permission to do this."

Suddenly, he felt very betrayed, his head darting down. However, he also knew that Shiro only ever meant the best for him. His fingers clutched the top of his futon, his jaw tightening, knowing refusing was a bad idea. "Okay. I'll give it a try. Not that I want to."

"Okay. Get some sleep, or try to."

Keith swallowed, before lying down. Shinji turned off the light, leaving him in the dark. The panicked feeling started to subside until another familiar feeling shot through his entire body. It was that paralyzing feeling he felt the other night. His dark eyes darted around, knowing full well a stranger was entering his room while the others slept. Again, he saw the pale moon like skin and the mostly humanoid figure. He remembered despite not having remembered. She leaned over again, her arm touching his arm as panic welled through his mind, nausea hitting him in the pit of the stomach. "Help."

"Help? We are trying to help you. This world was perfect, but it failed."

"Help, please…" Keith's eyes closed, hoping that one of his family members would hear him.

"They're asleep, so they can't come and help you. We want to know why you're creating an anomaly in this world. It's your fault, you know."

The teen clamped his eyes tighter. "What does that mean?"

"If only you'd not remembered that the Kerberos mission failed."

"What do you mean the Kerberos mission failed?"

The female alien turned towards the voice. Keith could see the silhouette of Ryo in the doorway. The alien touched the side of his face, making his focus blur. He wasn't sure what happened next, nor could he remember that the alien was there, beyond the fact a major anxiety attack had set in. Turning, he saw Ryo knocked out on the floor. Keith attempted to sit up, only to find his body retching again, but shaking all over.

Ryo let out a groan, sitting up himself, only for him to let out a groan of utter disgust. "Seriously?"

"S… s…." Keith's eyes snapped shut, finding himself unable to speak.

The other teen stood, wobbling slightly. He turned on the light. "I'll get Shinji. I feel sick myself. What did she mean by that?"

"Who?"

"Who? The person who was…"

" _I'm supposed to be the one going nuts._ " Keith shook his head as Ryo looked at him.

"So you don't remember what happened."

The red paladin shook his head again. Ryo disappeared from the room, and soon Shinji was in the room cleaning up the mess. The current substitute for Shiro in the legal guardian department spoke up. "This is why you're going to be taking the medicine. To stay off the nightmares, and the memory flashes. At least until Shiro gets back. I'll stay with you…"

"I'll stay with him until morning."

Keith didn't think to protest, as he felt too tired and simply wanted to sleep. The anxiety still washed over him, making him feel the fear rush through his bones. Shinji, however, thought otherwise. "What? Ryo…"

"It will be far more comfortable than sleeping on the couch."

"I'm not exactly sure…"

"If this is a good idea? I'm the one who realized something was going on. He's also shaking, and unresponsive. Someone needs to stay with him. I can do this"

"Fine." Shinji let out a sigh. "Just, change into some actual nightwear."

Both of his cousins left the room, but Ryo came back a few minutes later came back, turning off the light. The older teen pulled back the sheets, slipping in. Keith flinched. "What are…"

"It's okay."

"It's not. They're putting me on medication, Apparently, I'm having nightmares, but…"

"I know it's not." Ryo pulled his arm under his head, closing his eyes so he could sleep. "How about we talk about this in the morning. We've got classes at the garrison tomorrow, or did you forget."

"I forgot."

"Figures."


	34. What is Real

The fact some stranger was in Keith's room left an unsettling feeling in the pit of his stomach. As he stepped into the room, he overheard the person say, "if only you'd not remembered that the Kerberos mission failed."

"What do you mean the Kerberos mission failed?" Ryo wasn't sure what was more shocking, the fact the Kerberos mission his older cousin was on supposedly failed, or that in the room was a humanoid figure which was obviously an alien. The alien person was doing something to Keith, making him unable to move, then they moved quickly, doing something so that he lost consciousness.

He awoke to the sound of someone retching onto the floor, only for his hand to set down in the mess when he attempted to push himself up. "Seriously?"

"S… s…"

Ryo's head darted up, realizing suddenly that his cousin was possibly attempting to apologize, which in itself felt out of character, considering their past. He turned on the light, only to find Keith lying on his futon, his entire body trembling. He stood up, remember the alien which had somehow managed to find their way into his cousin's room. He himself felt nauseated, thinking as his stomach churned that the alien had done something to him before they left. "I'll get Shinji. I feel sick myself. What did she mean by that?"

"Who?" Keith's voice was weak.

"Who? The person who was…" Ryo stopped, watching Keith shake his head as well as the look of fear. "So you don't remember what happened." He turned, his lips pushing together in frustration, heading to the bathroom first to throw up himself. He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, looking in the mirror. " _He's unaware of what happened. How come I can remember?_ "

He washed his hands, then headed to wake up Shinji. His own brother startled awake, looking up at Ryo's pale face, his eyes groggy and wondering what was going on. "Whatz…"

"Akira."

"Please tell me you're not pestering him." Shinji let out a sigh.

"No. I heard a strange noise coming from his room and went to check on him." The younger brother looked away. Ryo glanced away, his arms folded across his chest. He was mentally still trying to wrap his mind around the fact aliens existed, the Kerberos mission had somehow failed, but that Keith didn't remember what occurred the night before. As such, even if he wanted to tell his older brother what was going on, as he only had his word as proof.

He followed Shinji back to Keith's bedroom, but couldn't help but note how out of it Keith was, his body shaking and his eyes not really responding to what was going on around him. His older brother let out a sigh, before going back out to get something to clean up the mess. Ryo hung back in the door way, watching Keith carefully as Shinji got to work. What his brother said next startled him. "This is why you're going to be taking the medicine. To stay off the nightmares, and the memory flashes. At least until Shiro gets back. I'll stay with you…"

"I'll stay with him until morning." The offer was a gut reaction, but hearing that his cousin had been having nightmares made him think there was a possibility that those strangers had been in Keith's room yet again. As much as he hated admitting that aliens were real, he needed to. It was also better for someone who knew what was going on to be there. Shinji relented but insisted that Ryo change into his night ware.

He turned off the light when he got back, and slid in under the sheets, feeling Keith flinch before completely tensing up. "What are…"

"It's okay."

"It's not. They're putting me on medication. Apparently, I'm having nightmares, but…"

"I know it's not." They would talk about it in the morning, but Keith's lack of awareness became even more apparent. Soon, Ryo began to drift asleep, only to hear his cousin muttering in his sleep, something about Shiro and not dying. Sighing, he reached out and touched Keith's shoulder to calm him down. This trip was going to honestly be a very long one. In fact, it didn't seem like he got much sleep when his alarm finally went off.

Keith remained asleep when he got up, but somehow his cousin's hand had latched onto the sleeve of his night clothes. In some ways, it was super annoying, particularly listening to the soft snore coming from Keith. Letting out a deep sigh, Ryo brushed away his cousin's hand, trying to ignore what he considered childish antics. As he sat up, the cousin who was awake paused, glancing back down at Keith. " _Maybe him having this soft side isn't so bad? True, that it is super embarrassing, but not that big of a deal._ "

Getting up, he changed into his garrison uniform, coming back to easily find that Keith was still sleeping. He nudged Keith lightly on the shoulder, only for the other teen to bury his face into his pillow. "Nuh. Shiro, five more minutes."

"Shiro's not here buddy."

One of Keith's eyes darted open, wide. Ryo paused, noting the shape and color of his cousin's eye. His cousin's eyes had always been a bit odd, but Ryo shook it off despite the fact a distant memory was playing around in his head, threatening to get out. Keith attempted to sit up, only to hiss in pain. "What are you…"

"Doing in your room?" Ryo sighed. "I spent the night, remember?" Keith simply gave him a look that indicated he still half asleep, but also rather annoyed. "You woke up in the middle of the night?" No response, just a continued stare. "I'll help you get dressed. What ever you do, don't take the medicine they have for you."

Keith's eyes blinked, before his head turned to look at the foot of his bed, his mind processing the situation. Tactically, Keith had always been a genius, yet certain emotions tended to get in the way of his ability to process information. "I'm taking the medication because I've been having nightmares and other issues."

"You're taking the medication because they think you've been having nightmares."

Keith visibly flinched, looking Ryo in the eye. "If I've not been having nightmares…"

"I'm not sure you'd believe me if I told you."

The other teen's hands clenched the sheets, his knuckles turning white. "Ryo, have you seen anything funny?"

"Funny?" One of Ryo's eyebrow's shot up. "Like what?"

Keith opened his mouth to say something, when suddenly a strange thing floated into the room, landing on his cousin's head. This had occurred the day before, and Ryo found himself taking a deep breath. The _thing_ looked like one of those rain dolls he'd made as a child. Suddenly, one of Keith's hands reached up, and a finger pointed at the Ghost on the top of his head. "This, for starters."

Ryo took a deep breath, wondering how his cousin could be so nonchalant about the situation. "Better question, why aren't you reacting to the existence of that thing?"

"It's not as if it's the first alien I've met. It's also rather friendly, isn't it?"

"I honestly wouldn't know." Ryo sat down on the bed with a plop. "The alien which was in your room didn't seem at all friendly." Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Keith flinch. "I'd like to say I handled the situation, but I just ended up passed out on the floor of your room. Both of us spewed our guts, though I thankfully managed to get to the toilet before I did."

"That is… rather personal."

"Are you doubting the fact I saw an alien Akira?"

"No… I'm talking about the fact you told me you threw up. Hunk is always talking about his gastric issues, and he's rather personal, so… rather personal."

"You know, I honestly struggle to follow your logic."

"Sorry…"

"Don't apologize. Geniuses are apparently supposed to be weird."

"I'm not a genius. Shiro is."

Ryo took a deep breath. "Keith, last night that thing, that alien, she said something, as I'm assuming she is a she. She said something about something being your fault, but that this was caused by the fact you remembered that the Kerberos mission failed, but… the mission hasn't failed. We talked to Shiro last night."

"That wasn't Shiro."

"Keith…" Ryo rubbed the back of his head.

"At least, that wasn't _our_ Shiro." Keith's eyes darted to the sheets. "I shouldn't explain any more. I can't involve you."

"To late. I am involved."

"Yet you don't know squat about what's going on."

"Fair enough, but I'm also not leaving you alone at night for that alien chick to come in either. Actually, I'm not leaving you alone period." Ryo shuddered. "Alien chicks… creepy."

"Allura's not creepy." Keith seemed rather displeased, likely at the idea of Ryo following him around all day.

"Allura?"

"She's the Altean princess."

"Al…" Ryo's eyes widened, a memory flash occurring, making him remember the picture in his book, except something was different. The memory faded to quickly as a knock came at Keith's door, almost as if someone were trying to manipulate things so he couldn't remember something important. He shook his head, letting out a sigh, filing the word Altean away in the back of his head.

"Keith, come here."

"Alright…"

Ryo sighed, watching Keith stand up and leave the room to follow after Shinji. He heard his older brother ask if he was bugging Keith as they left. Taking a deep breath, he stood up, grabbing Keith's spare school uniform as he left the room. Shinji was already dressed, reading for his job instructing at the garrison. He went into the living room, watching as Shinji placed a pill into Keith's hand as his cousin looked at the medicine rather reluctantly. " _Damn. I hadn't factored in my older brother into all of this._ "

"You've got to take it, Keith. Doctors orders." Shinji watched Keith frown. "Come on, here's a water. Chug it down." Ryo watched as his cousin stuck it into his mouth, before seemingly chugging it down. "Now open your mouth so I can see that you took your medicine."

" _Yup, I hadn't factored Shinji into this at all._ "

"Good. Breakfast will be ready soon. I'll help you get into your school uniform after we're done eating."

"I'll help him, and then it's done. I've already got his uniform." Ryo watched one of his brother's eyebrow's shoot up. Letting out a sigh, Shinji shook his head as he reached up for one of Shiro's frying pans.

Keith took it as Shinji showing his disapproval instead of utter shock at Ryo's actions. "I'm fine with having his help. Really, I am."

The frying pan dropped to the floor, and this time the shock was evident. Shinji swallowed. "What?"

"Um…" The confusion of their cousin was obviously only growing.

"Last night you were convinced that Ryo isn't the real Ryo?"

"I'm still not. A nice Ryo though is better than a mean Ryo, isn't it?"

One of Ryo's eyebrow's shot up. Letting out a sigh, he pushed Keith towards the bathroom, shaking his head. "I guess I should take that as a compliment despite how weird it sounded?"

"Yes." Keith tensed up slightly for a few seconds before whispering. "Sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

"You told me not to take the medicine."

"Akira, I hadn't factored in Shinji."

'This world is scary, as there are real world consequences meaning that it is very, very real."

Ryo paused, standing in the laundry room area. He turned Keith around to look at him. "What did you mean by that?"

"S…"

"Don't apologize. Just explain. This isn't the first time you've said something about things not being real. In fact, you said the same thing about Shiro."

Keith's eyes glanced away nervously. "I'm kind of having problems. Problems figuring out what is real or not. I think one of the garrison doctors called it dysphoria, but I'm not sure. It's why this happened. I thought I was having a really bad dream, and I tried hurting myself to wake up. Okay? I'm insane like you've always thought."

"Except I clearly saw the alien last night, so there's likely something more to all of this." Ryo shoved the pants into Keith's arms. "Start with this, and I'll help you when you need me to."

He proceeded to watch Keith struggle, wincing at how much the injuries on his cousin's wrists ended up negatively effecting his ability to grasp things. He ended up helping his cousin with fastening, as well as getting the upper clothing on completely. The look in Keith's eyes said a lot, that the robbed independence wasn't something he liked. However, the cutting thankfully wasn't because Keith was suicidal, and could be attributed to Keith's usual reckless behavior which occurred when his cousin started to get emotionally upset.

" _Note to self. Try your best not to upset him right now._ "

They went out to breakfast, Shinji giving them a look that indicated he was still surprised. Keith struggled slightly with eating, again having to do with his wrists. Ryo hadn't noticed, but last night Keith had struggled then. They then grabbed their bags, again, something Keith needed help with, leaving Ryo to do the carrying. Shinji had to get in early for teaching, so they were going in early.

Keith began to nod off before his head darted up. "I think I left my alarm on."

"What do you mean?" Shinji seemed worried, but Ryo couldn't blame him.

"I don't leave this early. At least, not when Shiro's not home. It's a slightly different routine."

"I could have you and Ryo come in later tomorrow if that helps."

"I don't know. I don't mind."

"We'll figure it out." Ryo folded his arms across his chest.

And then… Keith spoke up again. "I feel funny."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shinji asked.

"I mean, really _weird_."

Ryo should have known that was a warning.


	35. Spider Web

Accepting Ryo felt strange.

"A nice Ryo though is better than a mean Ryo, isn't it?"

In Keith's mind that was a truth, but also something that made him _not_ want to go back to the other world. Eventually, the war would end, and they would find themselves back on Earth, which meant he would have to deal with the real Ryo, the real Ryo who had been mean to him his entire life. Shinji – he honestly drew a blank slate on Ryo's older brother. He was like Shiro, but he was naturally kind to everyone but didn't have to deal with him every day like Shiro did. Plus, there was also the fact Shinji was likely nice to him to be nice to Shiro, the two were that close.

It felt strange though, having family suddenly give a shit about how he felt, and what was wrong with him. It hurt as well that it took him doing something drastic, although completely unintentional, to get their attention. It hurt thinking that someone out there might actually think that cutting themselves was a good way to deal with the pain, or that an attempt on their life would somehow bring them the attention they craved. No, not attention, but affection and a caring hand. So, as much as this Ryo in this reality was nice, the reality of this world still hurt big time.

There was also the fact he felt weird. At first, he hadn't felt strange, but as the bus continued its way to the Garrison out in the dessert, Keith couldn't help but feel weird. It was kind of like a dizzy feeling, but not really. The closest thing he'd ever come to such a feeling was possibly one of his sugar rushes he'd had as a child, but mentally he felt quite uninhibited. Most of all, he didn't feel like himself. If dysphoria was the act of not feeling something, he was now feeling even more out of place than before.

It made him honestly feel mentally sick, but he brushed it aside rather quickly.

They arrived at the Garrison, and he found himself entering the Garrison while the adults who came into work early looked at him. His eyes widened, remembering how the adults always stared, typically giving him looks of disgust even when he was with Shiro. The black paladin had always told him not to mind them, that their opinions meant nothing, and yet having spent time with the other paladins, the opinion did, in fact, mean a lot to him, as he needed to feel accepted by someone other than just Shiro.

It was yet another thing that made him feel mentally ill, but so did thinking of the words mentally ill, with the fact he didn't want anyone to think him insane.

Getting off the bus, he found himself met with the arid air, but the coolness of a desert morning. He took a deep breath, remembering how he preferred the night time hours when living out in the shack, but brushed the thought away quickly, letting it be replaced by the fact this type of weather made him feel good but put him in a good mood despite the fact he felt completely weird.

A quick tug on his sleeve from Ryo led to him following after his cousin, his eyes darting around to see everything and take everything in. The clouds up in the sky were of different shapes, and he wondered what Hunk would see in said shapes. He didn't realize that Ryo was continuing to pull him along by his sleeve, let alone the fact that if Ryo wasn't doing this that he would have just stood outside looking up at the sky all day. Nature was one of those places where he could find a peaceful bliss where he could just be himself.

Eventually, they were inside, so his eyes had to find something else to look at. They passed by the teacher's office, and he noticed one of the teacher's startle upon seeing him. He simply smiled and waved at the man who waved back despite the look on his face.

"Akira?"

"What?"

"Focus."

"Uh-huh." Keith's eyes continued to dart around. " _What was it Shiro said about focus?_ "

It was only a few minutes later that he saw the spider web above the vending machine, and he tugged away from Ryo. He headed over to the vending machine. "You've already eaten."

"Spider web."

"What?"

Keith didn't respond to Ryo and instead looked around for something so he could get closer to the spider web. The only things he saw were a couple of trashcans, and without hesitation he started to tug them over, only to frown upon remembering the pain in his wrists. Letting out a sigh, he began to push the trash cans over using his body. He didn't notice the exasperated look on Ryo's face.

"Akira, what are you doing?"

"Spider web."

"You already said that. That doesn't explain what you're doing."

"I want to see the spider web." Both trashcans were now right by the vending machine, and Keith started to hop up on the top of the one nearest the vending machine, only to let out a hiss at the pain in his wrists. They still stung from the stunt he pulled, but the anxiety regarding the incident had now fled his mind.

"What?"

"You heard me." With a little effort and without using his hands, he began to stand up on the trashcan. For a few second's he wobbled precariously.

"Akira, are you trying to hurt yourself?" Ryo's voice strained.

"No." He managed to balance himself and stand all the way up. He then leaned against the vending machine, his arms perched on top of the machine so his chin could rest on them while he stared at the spider web, watching the spider and all of the bugs caught in the web. He didn't notice Ryo standing there, his arms crossed and his mouth twisted up in frustration. Ryo though did not make a move to make him stop, though the worry was quiet evident. He also didn't see a familiar pair approach.

"Um, Keith?" Hunk piped up, finally drawing Keith's attention away from the spider web. " _What_ are you doing?"

"Hunk!" The red paladin knew he was excited to see his fellow paladins. Both Hunk and Lance were standing next to Ryo. All three had looks of shock on their face. A smile spread across his face, and then he catapulted himself at the yellow paladin. He didn't care that his wrists stung either. "Good morning!"

Hunk reflectively caught him in the hug, his dark eyes widening in shock while Lance looked like his mind just exploded. "Keith. Buddy, are you feeling okay?"

The yellow paladin set him down gently, and Keith then lunged himself at Lance, trying to hug the blue paladin this time. "Of course, I feel okay. Why do you ask?"

Lance held out his hand, stopping Keith from hugging him. "Seriously. Stop."

"Why?"

"Dude, you're seriously trying to hug me right now."

"But I love you guys!" Keith watched the color drain from both Hunk and Lance's faces as they looked at each other and swallowed. Ryo, who was standing nearby simply face palmed, covering his eyes, but then let out a groan. "What?"

"Dude, that… you don't tell guys that you love them!" Lance had a look which said Keith needed to seriously back off, yet that didn't faze the red paladin one bit. He simply titled his head, completely confused.

"Why? I love you guys like I love Shiro. What's wrong with that?" Keith continued to smile.

"Creepy…" Hunk leaned over to whisper into Lance's ear.

"What's wrong with loving you guys like brothers? And Pidge like a sister?"

A sigh of relief escaped Lance's mouth. "So you don't love-love us?"

"No. I love-love Allura." The words came out of his mouth without realizing, yet it didn't actually trigger that he said him.

Ryo's eyes widened in horror. "Wait! That alien chick you mentioned earlier?"

Hunk and Lance's eyes had widened in horror as well when Keith mentioned Allura, however, the horror seemed to increase when they turned to look at Ryo. Something clicked in Keith's mind that something was wrong, but that perhaps…. "Hey, did I say something wrong?"

"No Keith. You've done nothing wrong." Lance folded his arms, his voice hissing. Suddenly, he grabbed the front of Ryo's clothing despite the fact the other teen carried a sword. " _What_ did you _do_ to Keith?"

"I didn't _do_ anything!"

"Yeah right! You got him to blab about Allura!" Hunk piped up.

Keith sighed, looking around, completely bored out of his mind with the "adult arguing" which was going on right then. He saw the spider web again, and started to set the trashcan he managed to knock over so he could climb back up.

"No!" Ryo's voice made him flinch, and he turned to see that his cousin's actions had made Lance flinch as well. "You're not climbing back up to look at the spider web. You're just going to end up hurting yourself!"

"This is Keith we're talking about. He does crazy stuff all the time."

"Yeah, but normally he doesn't act like this." Hunk piped up.

"Act like what?" Keith's head titled.

"Dude!" Lance's hands motioned in frustration. "Don't you get the fact you're not acting like yourself."

Keith's eyes blinked. "Why do you say that?"

"You're acting like you're four!"

"Eight. Eight or ten." Ryo piped up.

"Excuse me?" Lance turned back towards Ryo.

"None of your business." Ryo grabbed Keith.

Keith sighed, before turning to look elsewhere. He quickly became distracted though when something flew by. "Ah. Bozu-chan!"


End file.
